Pete Cumming earns police chief promotion
Longboat Key Town Manager Dave Bullock told the Town Commission last week that Acting Police Chief Pete Cumming was promoted beyond the Acting and is now the permanent leader of the Longboat Key police force.
Cumming was named Acting Chief after Al Hogle died in a motorcycle accident last spring, leaving the post open.
Bullock said he had four months to observe and work with Cumming and decided he was the right fit for the position.
“Pete Cumming knows the community and what residents want from their police department,” Bullock told Longboat Key News.
“A lot of communities want to reduce the murder rate or gang activity. Here they want it to be a safe place but they also want the law enforcement folks to help them out. He has all the connections, knows the department very well. He has demonstrated his ability to react to situations that require a level of planning such as the storms. He seeks ways to improve the force,” added Bullock.
Background
Cumming grew up in Westchester, N.Y, and moved to Sarasota at 13 in 1972.
“In my teen years I looked up to policemen and thought that nothing could be better. You stood for something good and policeman were a symbol of that.”
His first exposure to law enforcement came even earlier when he would visit his grandfather at work, which was as a tower guard at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in New York.
And that experience coupled with his love of the idea of police work was joined by an appreciation for management from his father. Cumming said his father worked as a management consultant and traveled extensively to help organizations run smoother.
After Cumming graduated from Sarasota High, he attended Manatee Community College and that is where his career in law enforcement became his destiny.
Cumming applied and became a deputy in 1980, right after school, under Sherriff Jim Hardcastle.
Cumming progressed rapidly after four years on patrol. He soon went into crimes against property work and then crimes against people, and then narcotics.
He was at the County a total of nine years and at age 25 became detective.
Over course of the past 10 years before joining the Longboat department, Cumming was with FDLE. He spent six months running a pawnshop as an investigation and was on Cuban organized task force tracking boat thefts. The premise of the FDLE is to go where crimes span multi districts. The FDLE work is often long-term investigations.
It was Hogle, who, at a retirement party four years ago, asked him to come to Longboat Key. Cumming said he thought about the idea and spoke with his wife and soon realized after 25 years he was ready for it.
“I had too much adrenaline 10 years earlier, but I knew at that time that is what I wanted to do.”
He came aboard Longboat Key as a Captain on March 31, 2008. He loved working with Hogle.
“Who you work for is everything. It was a perfect fit when I knew I was working with someone I respect and is not a micro manager. He did not second-guess you; he had confidence in me,” said Cumming.
And after narcotics interventions and breaking up violent theft rings on the mainland, did Cumming like the work?
“It was amazing — I have never felt so appreciated as I do on Longboat Key. People show their respect for what you do in the community and people treat you with kindness. I grew to Love Longboat Key,” Cumming said.
And Cumming soon had what he calls an amazing realization.
“When I worked at the Sheriff’s office I thought why would anyone work on Longboat Key, there is no crime? Now, I realize it is because we are so visible is why there is no crime. What we are doing works,” Cumming said.
And when Cumming is not providing police services, he spends family time on acreage out east by Myakka State Park. He and his wife, Diane, raise animals and take care of what he calls their little ranch.
