Commissioners approve $1.8 million transfer of forfeiture money to LCSO

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A LCSO officer enters a police vehicle. Photo via WINK News.
A LCSO officer enters a police vehicle. Photo via WINK News.

When the Lee County Sheriff’s Office takes criminals off the streets, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said, they collect a lot of things.

“We take sometimes seized vehicles from some of our pedophile operations and also we take drugs off the street with money, so the bad people and the bad money comes off the streets,” Marceno said. “We do great things with it for our community.”

All the forfeiture money the agency collects goes into a trust fund. On Tuesday, Lee County commissioners approved the transfer of $1.8 million from the fund to the Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Marceno. Photo via WINK News.
Sheriff Marceno of Lee County. Photo via WINK News.

“There’s so many great things we do with that money each and every day,” Marceno said, “and I’m proud that we do it.”

$1.3 million of the $1.8 million total will go toward a real-time crime center and intelligence unit, which is similar to the one Fort Myers Police Department uses. Marceno said it would collect all the video in real time to help the Sheriff’s Office reduce crime quickly.

It plans to allocate the remaining money to the community.

“Obligated by statute to donate 25 percent or more for a great cause,” Marceno said. “That could be on drug awareness, anything drug-related to help our children. To help them obviously stop being addicted to drugs.”

This includes any non-profits Marceno believes will make the community safer and a better place to live.

“We try to help as many people in touch as many great things in this community as we can possible,” Marceno said.

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