Chief Ed Duncan has officially announced his intention to retire and Plant City braces to lose what has arguably been one of the most honest and diligent leaders in its history.
Duncan has been with the department for six years, but has spent a lifetime in law enforcement. In every agency he’s joined, he led with a reputation of straightforwardness and an expectation of high integrity of all he works with.
“I would like to be remembered as a person that is open and honest,” Duncan said. “What you see is what you get. My wife refers to me as a ‘fixer.’ I want to fix things when I see there is a problem. At the end of the day I hope people see me as someone they could trust and that no matter what my rank was, that I was always Ed. I want people to feel comfortable coming to talk to me and I never wanted to appear as uncaring. I believe I’ve accomplished that. I cannot tell you how many people call me on my cell phone when they have a problem or stop me in the street to discuss a concern.”
Duncan developed his passion for law enforcement when he was still in high school. He was in a law enforcement enrichment program and by senior year he would spend half of his school day at the Tampa Police Department. After he graduated, the agency offered him a job. He was only 19 years old and stayed with TPD for three years. He said he learned so much in his short period of time there and he was hired by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in February of 1978.
Duncan built his career at HCSO and stayed for 34 years before he retired. It was a retirement that was well-earned.
His start, ironically, was right here in Plant City’s backyard. While serving on patrol with HCSO he was in charge of the east side of Hillsborough County. He spent long hours patrolling the edge of Plant City and fell in love with the town. His wife was born and raised in the community and in 1986 he finally moved to Plant City.
“I’ve always been fond of this town,” Duncan said. “It’s a community that’s a good place to be, a great place to live. There’s a sense of community here that you just don’t see everywhere. I never took that for granted.”
While at HCSO, he served under four sheriffs and carved his place into the agency as a SWAT operator. He also served as a tactical commander for some time and continued to rise through the ranks as he further developed his reputation with every position he entered.
His niche, he found, was in handling the security of major events. He worked two Super Bowls, numerous presidential events and even the Republican National Convention. With each of those jobs, he said, it is crucial to have a strong collaborative effort with all involved. It’s a policy he has since adopted for every task he’s managed.
His initial retirement was sweet. Following nearly 37 years in law enforcement, he was enjoying the time spent with his wife. They love to travel and were taking advantage of the opportunity to do so while still in good health. Duncan was on the slopes in Utah when he was called by former City Manager Greg Horwedel, who informed him PCPD was looking for a new chief.
“He asked me if I was tired of retirement yet and I told him I was currently snow skiing, so what did he think?” Duncan said. “But I started to think about it, really think about it and I knew that Plant City was a good department and I thought maybe I could go in there and help in any way I could. I thought that maybe I could help make it even better, to further its reputation. I was only supposed to stay a few years, but those few years have turned into six.”
PCPD has been accredited for five prior years and was awarded the excelsior level of accreditation from the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation in 2020, making it one of only 58 other law enforcement agencies statewide to obtain the status. PCPD was first accredited in 2005 and never shied away from the challenge of reaccreditation every three years since.
The responsibilities of law enforcement have evolved exponentially over the course of his career. Duncan said he continues to be impressed with the caliber of officers he sees coming up through the department. But the responsibilities they are tasked with push them to be the best they can be and to continue to adapt.
He sees the major concern of the incoming chief to be to continue to grow the staff. The city of Plant City is expanding so rapidly that it is crucial PCPD has enough officers to properly respond to the growing need. Those officers hired need to fit this community, to have a heart for Plant City, while still being the top caliber of applicants. The bar is high and he said PCPD’s officers need to continue to be able to meet it.
“Everybody needs someone to lean on,” Duncan said. “Often we get called when people are on their last days, when they are at their lowest. The way we present ourselves to those people played a role in how the situation develops. We are here to help. I used to get frustrated when police would say, ‘There’s nothing we can do.’ I’ve never wanted our officers to say ‘There’s nothing we can do.’ That’s not in my vocabulary, it’s not in my thought process and it is not permitted in this department. We are better than that, we do better than that.”
Partnerships are key to any successful department, Duncan said. Partnerships with other neighboring agencies, with the FBI, with experts in mental health and social services are what will ensure the agency can handle whatever is thrown its way.
The world is changing and the attitude toward law enforcement has changed as well. He believes the answer partly lies in further collaborative partnerships. Police are expected to respond to everything and to be experts in everything. In his opinion, they’ve stepped up to the plate. But he does believe that working with other agencies and organizations, whether that’s social workers or mental health experts, will be the key in further improving responses to those calls. He said he strongly hopes to never see the day when those experts are sent to a call without the protection of law enforcement in case something goes wrong.
The number of mental health calls over the course of the past decade has skyrocketed and he believes that law enforcement has to adapt and further expand its knowledge and expertise on the issue so every officer is fully prepared when they respond to a call.