PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 

Greetings, first let me state that I am looking forward to serving the next two years as your FATIU President and thank the membership for this opportunity. Being new to this position, I am open to any suggestions on how we can together make FATIU better. Please feel free to contact me or one of the other executive board members with any suggestions. 

As you know, the elections were held at the January 2007 meeting in Melbourne. I would like to welcome all the returning board members and the new board members. Your 2007 executive board is: 

President:                    Les Cravens, Miami-Dade Police Department

Vice President:            Todd Blair, Volusia County Sheriff’s Office 

Directors:                    Chip Pakulis, Lee County Sheriff’s Office

                                    Dave Dempsey, NICB

                                    Julie Comer, DHSMV

                                    John Lathrop, Lee County Sheriff’s Office

I would also like to welcome back Sheri Taynor as our Secretary/Treasurer, Samuel “Buddy” Riggi as our Web Master, and Neil Chamelin as our Legislative Committee Chairman. 

Let me take this time to thank outgoing president Larry Duguay and Director Pat Giammaria for their service on FATIU executive board. Thank you both for your dedication and commitment to FATIU and thanks for a job well done. 

Pat Giammaria has agreed to stay active with FATIU and is going to coordinate the FATIU newsletter. If you have any articles that relate to auto theft investigations, training or prevention and feel they would be a benefit to the membership please forward them to Pat Giammaria or anyone of the board members. 

Our next meeting will be held in Tampa at the Quorum Hotel on Friday May 11^th, 2007. This will be the first time that we are having the regular eight hour meeting and training session on a Friday instead of Thursday and the first time we are coordinating our training with outside organizations in an effort to receive additional training for our members. The Friday meeting is being tried in an effort to give members the option of staying an extra day or two to take advantage of attractions in the host city and the negotiated hotel rates. The DHSMV Advisory Meeting, Legislative Committee Meeting and Executive Board Meeting will still be held on the afternoon on the day prior to the regular training. In this case on Thursday afternoon May 10^th, 2007. FATIU is teaming up with representatives from the Miami-Dade Auto Theft Task Force, FDLE, NICB, and the private sector to host a License Plate Reader (LPR) workshop on Thursday. Classroom presentations relating to designing, implementing and operating an LPR system will be held in the morning with hands on demonstrations being done in the afternoon. Anyone wishing to learn more about LPR systems should make an effort to attend the workshop on Thursday prior to the Friday FATIU training. 

The full schedule for the May FATIU training and the LPR Workshop will be placed on the FATIU web page in the near future. Anyone with training ideas or request can forward them to Training Director Dave Dempsey at ldempsey@NICB.org.  

During the January 2007 meeting, the Legislative Committee discussed two pending bills and it was decided that FATIU should support these bills. Senate bill SB0182 is sponsored by the Honorable Steven A. Geller and dealt with rebuilt, modified, or retrofitted dump trucks. Senate bill SB0306 was sponsored by the Honorable Mike Fasano and dealt with liability insurance for vehicle repair shops. Letters supporting both of these pending bills have been sent on behalf of FATIU in support of these bills. I encourage our membership to look at these bills and pass the information on to their own agency’s legal sections so that they to can also offer support.  

I would like to encourage all our members to help us by recruiting new members and sponsors. The goals of the Executive Board is to see FATIU increase membership and sponsors to expand our statewide network of members that deal with vehicle related investigations, crime prevention and most importantly, training.      

            In closing, I would like to mention the devastation recently caused in East Central Florida when the tornados touched down and caused extensive damage. Some of our valued members live or work in the devastated areas and may be in need of our support. If you are aware of anyone who suffered from these storms and is in need of our help please let us know by forwarding an e-mail to anyone of the board members. We will be more than willing to rally our members to assist in anyway we can.

            Thanks and we look forward to seeing you in May.

Les Cravens, President