Wildwood Police Chief Randy Parmer got an anniversary gift Friday as he marks the end of his second year as the city’s chief.
Meeting more than 200 standards, the department was accredited for the first time by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It is the first Wildwood city department to receive a professional accreditation.
During the past two years, Parmer has given the department an extreme makeover, taking it far from the dark days of a damaging fire and a former chief forced to resign.
Turnover has been about 40 percent, he told city commissioners Monday, as the largest Wildwood department adjusted to the chief’s expectations.
He told commissioners he now has what he considers the perfect complement of officers and employees.
Parmer values recognition for officers and helpful community residents nearly as much as responding to crime incidents and requests for assistance.
At Monday’s meeting, he presented a plaque and praised Skip West of West Financial Group for providing the department with masks, hand sanitizer and $500 at the beginning of the pandemic and another $4,000 for Christmas programs. He regularly salutes officers before the city commission.
Last month, he honored Angela Velez, who volunteered to be become the traffic homicide investigator, as officer of the year. He also credited the department’s special enforcement unit with reducing problems on the city’s west side and the criminal investigation unit with recovering about $20,000 worth of kitchen cabinets stolen from homes under construction in the Villages of Southern Oaks.
Parmer’s changes go beyond awards and recognition. He has upgraded the department’s capability in many areas. A former dispatcher, for example, became a crime analyst after emergency call dispatching was transferred to Sumter County.
He took the department’s helm a few months after an electrical fire in October 2018 destroyed the headquarters on Huey Street, sending dispatchers fleeing for their lives.
In the fire’s wake, then-chief Paul Valentino and two members of his command staff resigned after clashes with City Manager Jason McHugh. Parmer was hired while an interim chief served for a couple months.
The devastating fire and the tattered old headquarters now are firmly in the rear view mirror.
Last summer, the department finally found a permanent home, moving into a new $7 million headquarters southwest of U.S. 301 and County Road 462 West.