Investigations & Records Division

The Investigations Division of the Winter Park Police Department is comprised of 6 detectives, 5 task force agents and a detective sergeant. Criminal Investigations’ detectives are assigned cases that primarily come from reports generated by patrol units from calls for service. These cases routinely are from crimes against persons or property. The task force agents are assigned to various regional Central Florida task force groups comprised of agents from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. These groups investigate a wide range of crimes anywhere from drug investigations to money laundering classes.

If you have any questions about the Criminal Investigations Division, please contact Lieutenant Tom Ponicki at 407-599-3659 or tponicki@cityofwinterpark.org.

The Community Services Division of the Winter Park Police Department is comprised of supervisors, officers and civilians. The responsibilities of this division range from implementing community-oriented policing units such as Neighborhood and Business Watch, and the School Resource Officer program.

Along with above listed functions, the Community Services Division is in charge of many of the civic-minded programs offered by the department. The Lock Box and S.A.F.E. programs, security surveys, and department tours are just a sample of some of the civic programs that are conducted by this division. If you have any questions about the programs offered by the Winter Park Police Department, please contact  Sergeant Liza Cieszynski at 407-599-3248 or lcieszynski@cityofwinterpark.org.

The Criminal Investigations Unit supports the other divisions of the Department by conducting follow-up investigations of reported criminal activity and if warranted, presenting cases to the Orange/Osceola County State Attorney’s office for prosecution. Detectives review preliminary investigations conducted by patrol officers and then interview victims, witnesses and suspects. Detectives also complete enhanced processing of any physical evidence submitted by uniformed officers to the Department’s Property and Evidence Section and prepare evidence for submission to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Crime Laboratory. Detectives also respond to and process major crime scenes relevant to Winter Park residents to insure that the highest levels of investigation and evidence collection methods are achieved. Detectives photograph, sketch and thoroughly examine crime scenes for any relevant physical evidence and if located, they document the exact location, properly collect it, mark it for future identification, examine it, package it and have it submitted it to the FDLE Crime Laboratory for analysis.

Another important function of the Criminal Investigation Unit is the filing and maintenance of field interview cards, photographs of suspects and latent fingerprint cards. Detectives have direct computer access to the databases of the in-house Records Management System, the Law Enforcement Data Sharing Program, the Florida and the National Crime Information Centers (FCIC/NCIC), the Criminal Justice Net (CJNET) and the Orange County Jail Booking Photographs via an in-office computer terminal and an in-office Crime Capture Investigative Station. Detectives are also trained to prepare photographic line-ups using the Crime Capture Investigative Station with its access to nearly 800,000 retrievable arrest photographs and 900,000 arrest records.

Detectives are responsible for the compilation of up-to-date criminal activity bulletins for dissemination to other units in the Department and also to other law enforcement agencies. This is a critical function of the Criminal Investigations Unit. Detectives are members of various local, state and national intelligence and crime specific associations. These resources enhance their abilities to identify crime trends from other areas and relate them to crimes occurring within the City. Detectives coordinate with other agencies involved to seek the arrest and conviction of any offenders. It is here that the cooperation between divisions sometimes comes full circle, and members from other divisions within the agency may assist in the location and arrest of criminal suspects.

If you have any questions about the Criminal Investigations Division please contact Lieutenant Tom Ponicki at 407-599-3659 or tponicki@cityofwinterpark.org.

The Honor Guard Unit dates back to as early as 1968 and was established to represent the Winter Park Police Department, its officers and families at police funerals, parades and other ceremonial occasions.

Members of the Honor Guard must be proficient at precision marching, flag standards, the U.S. Military Manual of Arms, the intricacies of choreography and funeral standards. They must also have the ability to stand at attention or at parade rest or funerary rest for extended periods.

The Winter Park Police Department’s current Honor Guard was formed in 1999. Since that time, the Honor Guard has participated in numerous activities throughout the city. The Unit also participates every May in three annual Law Enforcement Memorials; one at the county level, one at state level, and the third at the National Memorial in Washington D.C.

Part of the Honor Guard is the Color Guard which is a five-person guard that is used to present the colors at any given function. The Color Guard has participated in openings at sporting events, charity functions, businesses within the city, and funerals. They also participate in the annual Christmas and Saint Patrick’s Day parades every year down Park Avenue.

Honor guard members have two separate uniforms that are used for different times of the year and different functions.

If you need any further information or wish to have the Honor Guard participate in a function, please contact Sergeant Liza Cieszynski at 407-599-3248 or lcieszynski@cityofwinterpark.org.

The Hostage Negotiation Team was created to address critical incidents where the use of trained negotiators can assist in the successful resolution of a crisis situation. The Hostage Negotiation Team consists of 8 trained officers, a team supervisor and a team commander, who are available to respond if needed 24 hours a day. Officers selected to the team must have excellent communication skills, good listening skills, and be able to exercise good judgment during crisis situations. Hostage Negotiators must attend and successfully complete the 40-hour basic hostage negotiation school.

If you have any questions about the Hostage Negotiations Team please contact Lieutenant David Graham at 407-599-3320 or email at dgraham@cityofwinterpark.org.

The purpose of the Winter Park Police Department School Resource Officer Program (SRO) is to provide assistance for the students, teachers and staff in any areas that relate to law enforcement, by a visible, active police presence on campus. Unit personnel are charged with educating students, parents and school staff with regards to the law and law enforcement processes, assisting individual students with alternative solutions to personal and law related problems and providing drug abuse and gang avoidance counseling to youth. Additional duties performed by the SROs include protecting personnel and property on school campuses, providing classroom instruction, investigating crimes which occur on school grounds and to enforce laws.

The School Resource Officer serves as liaison, between the Police Department, the County Board of Education and the schools providing an information link regarding problems, possible solutions and/or ways to work more effectively together. The Police Department currently has 5 school resource officers assigned to the various schools within the city.

The Winter Park Police Department Street Crimes Unit became active in January 2011. Consisting of four officers and one sergeant working within the Investigations Division, the Street Crime Unit will work shifts during the week to parallel crime trends in the community. The goal of the Unit is to take a proactive approach to identify and address crimes in an effort to preserve a superior quality of life for today’s residents and for future generations. The methods used to identify targeted crimes are direct observations, the use of the Crime Analysis Unit to obtain data relative to calls for service and crime trends, field interview reports, self-initiated activity and arrests in designated areas.

The unit will target crimes such as drug dealing, robberies, residential and business burglaries and various thefts to include auto-thefts. This positive change allows the police department to saturate identified hot spots with increased officer presence and enforcement to increase safety for the residents and visitor in Winter Park.

If you have any information that you deem important for the Street Crimes Unit, you can contact the Drug Tip Hotline at 407-599-3286 or report concerns online by using the Provide Crime Tip form.

If you have any questions about the Street Crimes Unit, please contact Lieutenant Tom Ponicki at 407-599-3659 or tponicki@cityofwinterpark.org.