(KEY WEST, Fla.) – In Key West, 84 sworn police officers guard an island that is literally the end of the United States.
“There’s no other place like it,” says Chief Gordon “Buz” Dillon, who came to the Key West department after 23 years in Broward County north of Miami and a short stint in an Atlanta suburb.
Key West, the southernmost of the Florida Keys, is at the south end of US 1 and closer to Cuba than it is to Miami, about three hours away by car. The island has long attracted visitors looking for good fishing and relaxation, including writer Ernest Hemingway and President Harry Truman. It is so isolated, however, that it did not get a real influx of tourists until the 1970s.
About 28,000 people live on the 8-square-mile island. But on most days that expands to at least 50,000, including tourists and some people who commute into Key West from nearby islands, Dillon said. Summer used to be a slow time, but Key West is now a resort that attracts visitors from the United States and elsewhere year round.
“During a festival, we might have 50,000 drunks,” Dillon said.
In spite of the influx of outsiders, Key West has little serious crime. Dillon describes the main problems as “opportunistic theft” and rowdy drunks. Late at night, there are occasional assaults.
Key West, like the rest of South Florida, is very diverse with a large Hispanic population. And it has become one of the world’s most popular gay resorts. Dillon said that the locals tend to get along with each other and with the tourists and that the few hate crimes directed at homosexuals have generally proved to be the work of outsiders.
Key West, discovered by the Spaniard Ponce De Leon in 1513, had a population of fewer than 500 people when it incorporated in 1828. Growth remained slow through the 19th century, and by 1900 only 13 police officers served the area. The first jail in the 19th century was made from a ship’s brig.
In 1980, the police department had to cope with the Mariel boatlift when thousands of Cuban refugees landed there. The department’s history describes the 1980’s as “perhaps the darkest years” for law enforcement in Key West. South Florida was hit hard by the cocaine trade and in 1985, local officials and police officers were indicted in what became known as “the Bubba Bust,” when investigators determined that they had not been immune to the vast amounts of money moving through the area.
Since 1987, when the city for the first time had a graduate of the FBI Academy head the department, the chiefs have come from outside. The department has adopted community policing techniques.