Shakeup at Gulfport Police Chief Vincent Changes Top Command Roles

By Mike Sunnucks

Officers in the Gulfport Police Department have recently seen a change in what their commanders do as part of their daily jobs. Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent has reorganized the municipal law enforcement agency, shifting commanding officers duties, and changing some responsibilities.

Commanders Mary Farrand and Joshua Stone have new responsibilities under the changes. The pair essentially swapped roles under Vincent’s reorganization.

Gulfport Commander

Joshua Stone

Stone, who started with GPD in 2001, takes over as operations commander for Farrand. He has some priorities in his new post with Gulfport and other Pinellas County departments seeing frequent car break-ins and thefts.

“Right now, there are three distinct problems we would like to solve: Reduce the frequency of auto thefts in our city, reduce the frequency of vehicle burglaries, and we want to try and reduce the number of traffic crashes on Gulfport Boulevard. These are some immediate issues that we need to focus on,” Stone told The Gabber Newspaper

Stone said his new post will put him in contact with the public more than his previous community resources command post did.

“In my former role, I was responsible for the review of policy, the coordination of training, the investigation of internal affairs investigations assigned to me, the supervision of school resource officers, and overseeing our efforts related to neighborhood watch. Oh, and I was the accreditation manager for our accreditation process through the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation. There was a lot of paper involved, but not as much ‘people’ interaction, truth be told,” Stone said.

“In my new role, there is far more person-on-person interaction with our staff, and citizens. I need to make sure our folks have what they need, and the support they need to fulfill our mission. Commander Farrand did this well. I hope I can do as well as she did in this role.”

Gulfport Commander Mary Farrand

Farrand moves from operations commander to the newly named professional standards division, taking over many of the duties previously held by Stone.

“My current assignment is coordinating in-service and specialized training, policy review and development, internal affairs investigations, and accreditation,” Farrand told The Gabber Newspaper

She’s been with the Gulfport police force since 2001. Chief Vincent promoted both Farrand and Stone to commander status in 2012.

About the Changes in Command

GPD has 33 sworn officer positions, with seven current openings.

Vincent’s changes also move GPD Detective Christopher Priest to the criminal investigative section. He will report to Sergeant Thomas Woodman in that role, according to the reorganization order.

School resource officers (SROs) stationed at Boca Ciega High School and other schools now report to GPD’s special operations unit, led by Sergeant Rob Burkhart.

The department will work to free up time for Burkhart to work with SROs.

Vincent told The Gabber News- paper that the change will help get “a fresh look” at the department’s operations.

“Both commanders have broad expertise, education, and qualifications, but they naturally have different perspectives,” Vincent said. “This change will allow for new ideas in both operations and accountability while making sure the commanders stay up to date and completely familiar with the full spectrum of running a police department. After all, either of them needs to be ready to take over in the event something happens to me.”

The changes also remove Farrand from any daily oversight of officers and other “operational personnel.”

“I also changed the structure to eliminate any day-to-day oversight of operational personnel by the professional standards commander. This is important because this is the person responsible for audits and internal investigations, and this type of structure eliminates any potential conflict of interest that may be perceived as a result,” Vincent said.

The chief — who has been at GPD’s helm since 2010 — said he wants to rotate responsibilities on a regular basis.

“This rotation of responsibilities,” he said, “is something I think should occur more frequently moving forward.”