Daytona Beach Police Department
Encyclopedia
The Daytona Beach Police Department (DBPD) is the primary law enforcement agency for Daytona Beach, Florida
. There are 241 sworn full-time police officers, 105 sworn part-time officers and 81 civilians on the force which is headed by Michael Chitwood who serves as the chief, with Deputy Police Chief Ben Walton serving under him.
The main Police headquarters is located at 129 Valor Blvd., in a new building constructed after the former police headquarters at 990 Orange Avenue flooded. There is a DBPD substation located at the corner of Harvey and Wild Olive avenues on the "beachside" (barrier island
portion of Daytona Beach).
Eradication Team: Not in our Town!" are the words printed upon a T-shirt used to raise money for the Daytona Beach Police Explorers
Unit 22, a program which helps to mentor teenagers age 14 - 19, interested in a career in law enforcement.
The Police Explorers program is run by Learning for Life
(LFL), a United States school and work-site based program that is a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America
.
The T-shirts feature the words "Scumbag Eradication Team", and "Not In Our Town," with a caricature of DBPD Mike Chitwood (who served 17 years with the Philadelphia Police Department
) and a
toilet full of what are assumed to be "scumbags". According to the DBPD website:
"The purpose of the Daytona Beach Police Explorers Unit 22 is to assist the development of character
in young people."
While some have questioned the propriety of selling T-shirts to children with the word "scumbag" on it, Chief Chitwood has no qualms, according to Chitwood:
"If somebody doesn't like the fact that I call them a scumbag, too bad,".
Chitwood believes that the individuals he characterizes as "scumbags" not only erode the quality of life in Daytona Beach but they also ruin 'fabric'.
It's the scumbags like this that erode the quality of life and the fabric (sic) that we have here.
The T-shirt and its logo have been cited in a $100,000 police brutality
case filed by attorney
Sam Masters, who claims the DBPD condones violent behavior
. His client suffered broken ribs and a broken eye socket
during an arrest. Chief Chitwood welcomed the lawsuit:
"My suggestion to legal was you offer him one dollar and when he refuses, lets go to trial."
Prolific use of the word "scumbag" in public, as well as printing T-shirts which make prominent use of the word scumbag is a family tradition started in Pennsylvania by Chitwood's father, Mike Chitwood also a police officer. The elder Chitwood, currently police chief of Upper Darby in Pennsylavania prints; "Not in My Town, Scumbag" on his shirts.
s that occurred in December 2005, January 2006, February 2006 and December 2007 were linked to a single offender, a fifth unsolved death that occurred in October 2006 may have also been committed by the same offender. As of August, 2011, the person or persons responsible for the murders dubbed the Daytona Beach killer
, has not been apprehended and the investigation is still open.
"If you wanna come after me, make sure you bring your ‘A’ game 'cause I shoot back,".
Norma Bland, a community activist, believes death threats in public toilet stalls are an indicator of the good work being done by the Daytona Beach Police Department: "I take it as a compliment that we're doing our job."
customer Elizabeth Beeland in front of a storeload of customers. A store clerk had called police thinking Beeland was using a stolen credit card, which turned out not to be the case. Beeland was backing away from Wright when she was tased. Police Chief Mike Chitwood defended his officer's actions. Wright was also investigated for interfering in a narcotic
s investigation in 2009 by tipping off the suspects and was arrested in 2010 by members of her own department on three felony
charges for fraud and forgery for allegedly defrauding her own grandmother.
, Eric Holder to probe Chitwood’s "racially tinged’’ comments about the disturbance. A recent spate of murders in the black community including the shooting death of a 13 year-old boy who was shot in the face, have led some to blame the DBPD moving the police headquarters from Orange Ave. in the black community, to Valor Ave. in a predominately white suburban area of Daytona Beach. When asked about the possibility of placing a police substation in the area Chitwood responded that substations were: "a monument for cops to sit on their ass
and don’t do anything".
coffee shop where he received free coffee for about two years. Garvin was said to have visited the Starbucks up to six times a day while on duty and intimidating some of the employees and was accused of saying, "If something happens, either we can respond really fast or we could respond really slow. I've been coming here for years and I've been getting whatever I want. I'm the difference between you getting a two-minute response time, if you needed a little help, or a 15 minutes response time." When asked to take a polygraph
Garvin agreed, the results however suggested he was lying. Garvin was fired for this incident then subsequently rehired based on an arbitrators ruling that the investigation into his behavior was "shoddy". He was involved in another incident in May 2010, involving parking his unmarked patrol car in a handicapped parking space at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Osceola County
. He is currently under investigation again, according to DPBD Chief Chitwood.
Daytona Beach, Florida
Daytona Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, USA. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city has a population of 64,211. Daytona Beach is a principal city of the Deltona – Daytona Beach – Ormond Beach, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which the census bureau estimated had...
. There are 241 sworn full-time police officers, 105 sworn part-time officers and 81 civilians on the force which is headed by Michael Chitwood who serves as the chief, with Deputy Police Chief Ben Walton serving under him.
The main Police headquarters is located at 129 Valor Blvd., in a new building constructed after the former police headquarters at 990 Orange Avenue flooded. There is a DBPD substation located at the corner of Harvey and Wild Olive avenues on the "beachside" (barrier island
Barrier island
Barrier islands, a coastal landform and a type of barrier system, are relatively narrow strips of sand that parallel the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few islands to more than a dozen...
portion of Daytona Beach).
Scumbag Eradication Team
The ScumbagContempt
Contempt is an intensely negative emotion regarding a person or group of people as inferior, base, or worthless—it is similar to scorn. It is also used when people are being sarcastic. Contempt is also defined as the state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace, and an open disrespect or willful...
Eradication Team: Not in our Town!" are the words printed upon a T-shirt used to raise money for the Daytona Beach Police Explorers
Law Enforcement Exploring
Law Enforcement Exploring also known as Police Explorers is a career-oriented program that gives young adults the opportunity to explore a career in law enforcement by working with local law enforcement agencies. Founded on July 12, 1973, it is one of the Exploring programs from Learning for Life,...
Unit 22, a program which helps to mentor teenagers age 14 - 19, interested in a career in law enforcement.
The Police Explorers program is run by Learning for Life
Learning for Life
Learning for Life is a United States school and work-site based youth program that is a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America. It utilizes programs designed for schools and community-based organizations that are designed to prepare youth for the complexities of contemporary society and to...
(LFL), a United States school and work-site based program that is a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
.
The T-shirts feature the words "Scumbag Eradication Team", and "Not In Our Town," with a caricature of DBPD Mike Chitwood (who served 17 years with the Philadelphia Police Department
Philadelphia Police Department
The Philadelphia Police Department is the police agency responsible for law enforcement and investigations within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
) and a
toilet full of what are assumed to be "scumbags". According to the DBPD website:
"The purpose of the Daytona Beach Police Explorers Unit 22 is to assist the development of character
Moral character
Moral character or character is an evaluation of a particular individual's durable moral qualities. The concept of character can imply a variety of attributes including the existence or lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty, or of good behaviors or habits...
in young people."
While some have questioned the propriety of selling T-shirts to children with the word "scumbag" on it, Chief Chitwood has no qualms, according to Chitwood:
"If somebody doesn't like the fact that I call them a scumbag, too bad,".
Chitwood believes that the individuals he characterizes as "scumbags" not only erode the quality of life in Daytona Beach but they also ruin 'fabric'.
It's the scumbags like this that erode the quality of life and the fabric (sic) that we have here.
The T-shirt and its logo have been cited in a $100,000 police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
case filed by attorney
Attorney at law
An attorney at law in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients. Alternative terms include counselor and lawyer...
Sam Masters, who claims the DBPD condones violent behavior
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
. His client suffered broken ribs and a broken eye socket
Orbit (anatomy)
In anatomy, the orbit is the cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated. "Orbit" can refer to the bony socket, or it can also be used to imply the contents...
during an arrest. Chief Chitwood welcomed the lawsuit:
"My suggestion to legal was you offer him one dollar and when he refuses, lets go to trial."
Prolific use of the word "scumbag" in public, as well as printing T-shirts which make prominent use of the word scumbag is a family tradition started in Pennsylvania by Chitwood's father, Mike Chitwood also a police officer. The elder Chitwood, currently police chief of Upper Darby in Pennsylavania prints; "Not in My Town, Scumbag" on his shirts.
Ride Along Program
The DBPD has a ride along program that offers civilians the opportunity to ride in the front seat of a real police car for a suggested donation of $250. According to the flier advertising the program "This ride-along isn't just tooling around, eating doughnuts and writing parking tickets." There are four different action packed programs offered which vary in length from two to four hours. "Whether you choose to lock and load, cuff 'em and stuff 'em, or read 'em their rights, you will get your money's worth ... ," the flier states.Serial Killer
Four unsolved homicideHomicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
s that occurred in December 2005, January 2006, February 2006 and December 2007 were linked to a single offender, a fifth unsolved death that occurred in October 2006 may have also been committed by the same offender. As of August, 2011, the person or persons responsible for the murders dubbed the Daytona Beach killer
Daytona Beach killer
The Daytona Beach killer is a serial killer responsible for the murders of four women in the Daytona Beach area from December 2005–December 2007. The killer has never been apprehended...
, has not been apprehended and the investigation is still open.
Toilet stall threats
Threats against DBPD chief Michael Chitwood have been left in toilet stalls in bathrooms of the Volusia County Mall, but according to Chitwood he is non-plussed about the threat and others like it because toilet stall death threats come with the job;"If you wanna come after me, make sure you bring your ‘A’ game 'cause I shoot back,".
Norma Bland, a community activist, believes death threats in public toilet stalls are an indicator of the good work being done by the Daytona Beach Police Department: "I take it as a compliment that we're doing our job."
Professional courtesies
DBPD chief Michael Chitwood called Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson a "moron" during a public meeting and said after the meeting that he stands behind his comment.Ben Johnson said through a spokesman he would not dignify Chitwood's insult with a comment.Taser incident
On December 20, 2007 , Daytona Beach police officer Claudia Wright tased Best BuyBest Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
customer Elizabeth Beeland in front of a storeload of customers. A store clerk had called police thinking Beeland was using a stolen credit card, which turned out not to be the case. Beeland was backing away from Wright when she was tased. Police Chief Mike Chitwood defended his officer's actions. Wright was also investigated for interfering in a narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...
s investigation in 2009 by tipping off the suspects and was arrested in 2010 by members of her own department on three felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
charges for fraud and forgery for allegedly defrauding her own grandmother.
The black community
After a heavily publicised incident on the campus of the historically black Bethune–Cookman University, in which DBPD Chief Chitwood was alleged to have made racist comments, the NAACP asked the U.S Attorney GeneralAttorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
, Eric Holder to probe Chitwood’s "racially tinged’’ comments about the disturbance. A recent spate of murders in the black community including the shooting death of a 13 year-old boy who was shot in the face, have led some to blame the DBPD moving the police headquarters from Orange Ave. in the black community, to Valor Ave. in a predominately white suburban area of Daytona Beach. When asked about the possibility of placing a police substation in the area Chitwood responded that substations were: "a monument for cops to sit on their ass
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
and don’t do anything".
Coffee Shakedown
Daytona Lt. Major Garvin was fired for shaking down employees of a local StarbucksStarbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
coffee shop where he received free coffee for about two years. Garvin was said to have visited the Starbucks up to six times a day while on duty and intimidating some of the employees and was accused of saying, "If something happens, either we can respond really fast or we could respond really slow. I've been coming here for years and I've been getting whatever I want. I'm the difference between you getting a two-minute response time, if you needed a little help, or a 15 minutes response time." When asked to take a polygraph
Polygraph
A polygraph measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions...
Garvin agreed, the results however suggested he was lying. Garvin was fired for this incident then subsequently rehired based on an arbitrators ruling that the investigation into his behavior was "shoddy". He was involved in another incident in May 2010, involving parking his unmarked patrol car in a handicapped parking space at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Osceola County
Osceola County, Florida
Osceola County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 172,493. The U.S. Census Bureau 2006 estimate for the county is 244,045, making it the 17th fastest-growing county in the United States. Its county seat is Kissimmee.- History :Osceola County was...
. He is currently under investigation again, according to DPBD Chief Chitwood.
Killed in Line of Duty
- Police Officer Kevin John Fischer, a motorcycle cop, was struck and killed on September 4, 1998, by a pick-up truck on I-95, while aiding in an accident investigation of a prior incident.