Good morning and Happy New Year to all!
We were excited to have such an awesome turn out to the two-day training seminar hosted by the Volusia Sheriff’s Office. What an incredible job they did hosting the event. We cannot thank them enough for their hard work accomplishing such a successful event. We sincerely thank everyone who shared their knowledge with the membership as a presenter as well and hope that we continue to see new trends and information shared by this group of outstanding individuals.
For those were not in attendance at the 2023 two-day seminar I want to take this opportunity to provide some information and notes from the meeting. Official elections were held for the first time since the Florida Marine Intelligence Unit was reformed and revived. The original Executive Board that took this project on worked tirelessly to rebuild membership and make changes to update and modernize the organization. We want to thank them for everything they have done to get the jump start on this. A special thank you to Capt. Jay Marvin with FWC who spearheaded the project from the very beginning. We are very proud to have you on the team, and although you are leaving the role you accepted as President of the FMIU organization to lead the rebuild, it will continue to be a great relationship with you as a Past President. We also want to thank Capt. Tommy VanTrees who also helped to get this organization back on track as the initial First Vice President and keeping those Teams Meetings organized and thorough!
Your 2024-2025 Executive Board is as follows:
President Matt Dallarosa (Captain, FWC)
First Vice President Adam Popp (Master Deputy, Orange County)
Second Vice President Pat Harvey (Marine Enforcement Officer, St. Augustine PD)
Secretary Beth Cobb (Research and Training Specialist, FWC)
Treasurer Jessica Kaufman (Crime Intelligence Analyst II, FWC)
Director Dieter Iten (Lieutenant, FWC)
Director Aaron Williams (Marine Corporal, Charlotte County)
Director Aaron Braddock (Marine Corporal, St. Johns County)
Director Matt Seltzer (Senior Deputy, Volusia Sheriff’s Office)
The organization now has a new social media page on the Facebook platform. One of the efforts to modernize the organization led us to create a social media page since it is almost impossible to operate any modern organization without the use of the web and social media. The page is new and we are working hard to grow it. Please, any member who is active with Facebook like and follow the page, it will benefit everyone to have more engagement. The Facebook page can be found here:
This Facebook page will allow us to push information out to membership in a forum that is easy for each of us to share and comment. LE sensitive information will not be shared here. BOLOS and stolen boat flyers can be shared on the page at the request of the investigator.
In the coming months, there is a plan to expand to other social media platforms. There will also be an organization website where membership can find information about past and future meetings, renew dues, sign up new members, etc.
To continue the modernization of FMIU, there will be several meetings of the Executive Board to evaluate and change by-laws that are outdated or require changes to meet the needs and the goals of the organization. These changes will be presented to the membership once the board feels they are adequate to the requirements of the organization. The membership will have time to review the changes and a membership vote will be taken to finalize the changes. Regular updates about these changes will be emailed to the membership.
Thank you to each member that dedicates the time to come to one or more meetings a year. The purpose of this organization is intelligence, information sharing, and networking. Even though with modern technology much of this is accomplished without face-to-face interaction, I am a firm believer there is no replacement for it. As a board, we take pride in facilitating opportunities for each member to learn, network, and share information. Please invite your partners to join us and grow the Florida Marine Intelligence Unit. Remember that the organization allows private sector partners as well. Insurance Investigators, Surveyors, Salvage Companies are welcome to become involved. We would also like to see the participation of your agency’s criminal analysts!
Watch for upcoming emails about the first meeting of 2024 that will be held in the Southwest area of the state. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact any of the board members. Again, thank you for your membership and stay safe out there.
First Vice President Adam Popp