item fifty-four FIRST forensic institute update
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Oct 26, 2021
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Oct 26, 2021
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What was said
Machine transcription of 17m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 100% of 48 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
I think we move on to item fifty-four, I believe. So
or fifty-four.
Yep.
Gotta get my sheet turned over.
Roger Green, [address removed].
Yes, sir. Welcome.
Good morning, good morning. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. I just want to say that I am uh so happy to be here this morning. Uh it is so good to see see you all. Um I have an item here that I'd like to uh present to the commissioners.
Move to receive and file. Second.
We got a motion and second to receive and file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed black sign. Motion passed 5-0. Oh god. That's a scary thing.
Okay.
Okay, this is terrifying. And then you open it up there's a skull in there. Well, I guess this is good for Halloween to have this here.
On the clip, thank you. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, well good morning to everyone. Uh it is certainly a pleasure to be here. Again, my name is Roger Green and I am the director of FERST. Um many of you know what FIRST is, some of you that do not, it's the Forensic Institute for Research Security. and tactics uh and we are part of the Sheriff's Associ uh the Sheriff's Office and uh this morning uh what I like to do is just give a brief of what some of the wonderful Operations
that are are taking place right here in our own backyard and just some of the wonderful endeavors that we are privileged to be a part of just to give an update. So we have a few slides that we're gonna show. We're not gonna go into all the details of it, but I'm gonna try to give you just a little bit diagnostic understanding of what it is that we're doing and some of the wonderful things that are taking place here.
So what what are we doing? Uh our mission our mission statement says creating safer communities um by transforming public safety and this is being done through research uh to education and innovation. Uh there's a number of different things that uh there's a lot within that mission statement. Um many of you that do not know, and uh on our last slide we talk a little bit about this. Uh this project started off with the forensics body farm, uh as many of you know. Uh we call it our forensics field. Uh we are privileged
to have one of only eight forensics uh body farms in the entire nation that's active and it's right here in the county. Um uh a part of that whole initiative we have some other disciplines that are tied to that. We had a greater vision that was spearheaded obviously by our sheriff and our leadership. And under that leadership there were some other disciplines that came out of that. Cybersecurity, um, intelligence. Um K9, human uh which uh and under the intelligence umbrella, um human
trafficking and some other other areas, uh leadership uh tactics, uh and um you know then uh also our urban search and res re urban search and rescue rubble pile and we're gonna talk a little bit about that. What does this mean and what has transpired uh to date? Um Uh we've had uh it's a collaboration, just so uh you all understand, it's a collaboration between academic practitioners and the private sector to develop a state-of-the-art research and development center. Uh so I'm
here to give an account of those uh some of those endeavors, some of those practitioner-based uh relationships and some of those programs that are already moving forward, even without our buildings being completed. uh at this time, but we are pleased to uh to be able to have uh some of those programs taking place and moving forward um uh strong and um really leading the charge in some of these different areas. So we're excited about that. This um the map that you're looking at uh is the is the
layout uh that uh we we currently have for the for end for uh for first. As you see on the uh the furthest west uh side of that uh of that uh map, you're gonna you see where it says first, that is our second body farm. um that is uh just uh just under uh uh ten acres there uh that we have and uh we have a partnership that we've created with Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, the University of Florida. Uh so we are
uh privileged to have um you know three uh three of the the top forensic anthropologists uh within the state that are uh assisting us uh with that program. Um we have a donation program that that that encompasses that. uh a number of different research endeavors. which is uh giving us the opportunity to bring uh economic development to the area through partnerships of different companies. Uh so that is a strong push and we're excited about some of those some of those opportunities that are taking
place and some of the things to come just in those different lanes and we'll talk a little bit more about that later. Um Uh just adjacent to that you'll see the USF Body Farm. Uh as you all know, uh that um that relationship will be um with USF um occupying that space will be ended uh at the end of two thousand and twenty-two. Uh at that time uh we will then take uh take over that that um That plot of land and continue the expansion of the body farm, which you
see just adjacent to that. Our current buildings that we have, we have two buildings that are just about completed, and we're looking for those buildings to be completed by the end of this year. Our training building, also our canine center of excellence. So as you see just off the main road there. um Central Avenue, uh as soon as you come in, we have what we call our Canine Center of Excellence where we have a twenty fogged a new twenty fogged, twenty five dog kennel, Uh we have a
veterinary uh science building. some wonderful, wonderful partnerships that we've we've created through that with some of our top veterin veterinary medicine scientists across the country. And we've also have been working heavily with all of our military working dogs. um and uh having some of those trainings to help us to de determine and to figure out ways um what does it take to you know to to extend the longevity of the use of of canine working
dogs and and some of the challenges that we have here with heat uh doing the research uh that supports uh those endeavors and then gives it giving us an opportunity uh to be able to create new and innovative opportunities uh uh as it relates to technologies. Uh so that means the use of drones, the the y the use of uh thermal uh imagery, the use of uh uh heat sensory, um different biometrics uh that allow for us to place those on the on the animals uh for those animals to to do to be better taken care of. Uh
so those are the some of the things that are taking place right here in our own backyard. And I say this um, you know, and I I think uh sometimes um We don't know. I I want everybody to understand what we have here. We are privileged to have uh there's there's only three Uh FEMA level one urban search and res uh urban search and rescue rubble piles here in in the state. We have one of those on location.
I'm looking for my photo when I climbed all over that
pile of road. Yes. And we have the body farm at the same location. In addition to that, we have a canine center of excellence. In addition to that, we also have the training building which will accommodate all of these disciplines uh with the partnerships that have been created um you know since our um since um our infantry. Um Mm-hmm. In addition to that, our intelligence building, which gives us the opportunity to do different studies and to understand what is what's happening as it as it relates
to human trafficking. So we've spirit headed an an initiative on first behalf with one of our partners, St. Leo University. Um Kathy Pearson is here. She actually sits on the on the board with our Mel Green Foundation. in that great initiative and we're we're we're pleased to be uh driving that in in getting the information out education information and then the services that support survivors as well as making sure that people understand what is what actually is taking place in the human trafficking
space. First, uh was uh responsible uh for leading the charge and creating the training for the state for all of law enforcement. That was something that was uh directed. We were chosen uh by our attorney general's office, and we were pleased to have uh delivered that uh timely and was able to spearhead that training for all of law enforcement, which is the mandatory training uh that all law enforcement
Uh it has now expanded uh in its second phase for for healthcare. As well as to hotels and and different transit authorities. So your Uber drivers, your truck drivers, all of those now have access free of charge to be able to go on and look and take this training that basically gives them the information of what to do when you see these different items. And it's happening right here in our backyard. So we're pleased to be able to be a part. that that initiative. So all some
of that is is uh is taking place right there, uh will be uh driven out of that new building uh which is scheduled to be completed um the summer of 2020-22. uh which is our our I L P building. Um in addition to that uh and I know that uh we talked about the urban search and rescue uh rubble pile. The urban surgeon serpent uh search and rescue rubber pile is uh been completed now for about uh almost almost a year now. And uh some of the the the great uh the
things that we benefited from. We've been able to train the canines that uh are part of our task force, our FEMA task force, uh that were instrumental in being a part of the surfside collapse, uh as well as other other different um you know uh catastrophes that have taken place across this nation. Louisiana, um uh through Georgia. Georgia and north northern Florida. So all of those FEMA dogs uh at some point uh over the course of the last year have been right here in in the county training at our facility.
So We now have our own. Canine that is a part of the task force. They were successful in completing and establishing themselves along with the handler as a certified FEMA task force member now. So we're they're now participating in that and we're leading the charge in that direction with our canine facilities. Um all of this that we're talking about, I'm going to go to the next slide. All of this that we're
talking about, the goal is for us to look at gaps. What are the gaps that exist within these different disciplines, within these different areas of law enforcement and first responders? So when we talk about industry changes, things that are happening in terms of innovation, some of the you know, for example, um we we are scheduled to have our first First public safety unmanned systems symposium, which is scheduled for the spring of 2022. What
that entails is uh hundreds hundreds of uh of different um um companies, drones and unmanned systems that will come right here to this area. uh show show all of the different innovative uh techniques and some of the different uh innovations that are happening and the industries that they're impacting. So many of you know that uh there's there's an expansion that's exploding uh in real estate uh with the use of drones. There's an uh further expansion that's taking place in other industries uh that uh
those trainings that are necessary and even uh Putting together the CEs that support a more productive and accountable model is happening right here. So we're pleased to be able to spearhead some of that with our facilities. Again, we only have two buildings that are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. Again, that's our training building. And then our canine center of excellence and the other buildings are scheduled to to start um start the the full build, uh which will
take place after January, uh which is encompasses our forensic science building. Uh we're and with well we'll we will be working in partnership with Florida Gulf Coast University, uh Florida International University, uh the University of Florida, uh, and then um other university uh partners that are interested in research. So we're excited about that.
Again, here are the core disciplines that we're focusing on, forensic science, tactics, and human performance. We also did want to mention the human performance lane. We have been working closely with our Sports Coast team here, Adam and Gabby and Consuelo and their team here. uh have been instrumental in in supporting all of the efforts, working with the hotels, bringing uh bringing uh you know attendees um in preparation for these events. So
uh we're excited about um our next event which is uh in December where we're gonna have a uh it's it's called a human performance um uh training which is focused on first responders and uh nutrition, uh diet uh dietary um um training, um understanding the you know uh the kinesthetics that uh that support um eliminating um all of the the the potential for uh for uh injury uh and teaching them all of those different things all within a model
uh that that could be duplicated and to be to have that to s to be supported uh throughout the year uh with those s uh support contacts. So that is uh taking place and we have that upcoming in December. Uh so we're we're excited about that as well. Again, intelligence studies, another one of our core disciplines, working dogs, canines in public safety. Un demand systems, cybersecurity, and leadership. So there's a there's we have a lot going on. Uh I don't want to throw it all out to you, but uh I don't know
if there's any specific questions, but I would love to host any questions that you may have. Um
I appreciate the report. It's it's good to hear. Isn't this one facility, we're the only one Maybe in Florida with all that provide all this kind of training and all in the and also only one of six in the United States, I believe.
We are the only facility of this kind that in the in the entire United States that has everything at in one location. There are other facilities that have a focal point of just one of these items, uh like tactics uh or emergency management. You'll hear of places like the Guardian Center, um which is a little bit further north, uh and some other facilities that uh have these types of these types of endeavors, but no one facility encompasses all of these items. So we
are we are uh driving uh driving in a lane that's niche uh and in and what it brings to to the area just in terms of um you know we've had a a great deal of interest from companies that are looking uh and interested in having a secondary site uh so we've been working with uh with the EDC uh in preparation for that and understanding um some of the different Different um opportunities in terms of incentives uh that uh are available to them, and those are the things that uh that we're currently working on as well. Right.
Um what was the fasano where it said fasano on the map?
Yes, that is um that is with our our Safety Town, uh our our Safety Town um um um initiative that it's focused on our leadership, our our leadership lane, uh and that's um you know a a building that was that was created out there for that.
Mm. Any other questions? That was right. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. All
right. Well thank you all so much and uh we look forward to sharing any any other future uh information and please don't hesitate to reach out. Uh we'll be more than happy to provide that for you. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, sorry. Good to see you as