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Highlands Today

Frank Mercurio teaching law enforcement

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: July 4, 2009

AVON PARK - Former Avon Park Police Chief Frank Mercurio is back as an adjunct professor, teaching law enforcement to police cadets at the Public Service Academy at South Florida Community College.

Aside from his other duties he's been teaching at the college since 1997, he said.

Mercurio was in Iraq but said Thursday that he was not at liberty to discuss what he was doing there. He said he resigned from Avon Park at the end of 2007 and left the United States at the beginning of 2008. He remained in Iraq about 14 months.

"I've been back about three or four months," he said. "I was very honored and proud to have served with the finest military in the world and we should always remember the men and women that are serving in our armed forces that provide the freedoms we sometimes take for granted."

Mercurio said he has resumed his normal functions, attending mass and teaching at the college, and not being in the public eye. He prefers to maintain his privacy.

"He contacted us as soon as he got back," said Richard Morey, the public service academy's coordinator of law enforcement programs. "It's been several months."

Morey said Mercurio has been teaching law enforcement at the college for many years.

Mercurio will maintain his certification as a law enforcement officer by working as a reserve officer with the Town of Lake Placid, as Morey himself does.

"Every officer has to renew their certification every four years," said Morey. "And be affiliated with a law enforcement agency."

Or, in the case of corrections officers, maintain certification with a corrections agency.

"The Lake Placid Police Department requires 24 hours (of service) every six months minimum," Morey said. "Everyone far exceeds that time."

Mercurio just went through the process of being placed on the roster, Morey said.

Lake Placid Police Chief Phil Williams said Mercurio's experience will be a plus to his department.

"We're certainly glad to have him," said Williams. "Even in the past year he's taken the initiative to go to Iraq and use his experience over there to teach criminal investigations and to come back here and teach at the college.

"Frank's always been a source of inspiration to me as a chief. If he tells you he'll do something, you can count on a phone call just as soon as he gets back to the office. He's a kind of a cop's cop. I'm glad he chose to maintain his certificate with Lake Placid. The longer he's there the better off we are."

Highlands Today reporter Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com .

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