Sept. 07 -- LAKELAND, FL -- Three months after a county firefighter was charged with allegedly killing a man while he was in a gang, the Polk County Sheriff's Office has started conducting background checks for county firefighter applicants as a way to tighten regulations on new hires.
The county previously screened applicants by processing their driver's licenses and using the state's Criminal Justice Information Services to identify anyone with criminal warrants, arrests or convictions.
But Deputy County Manager Joe Halman said the Sheriff's Office will dig deeper into an applicant's history.
"We wanted to take it further and check with neighborhoods and find out other encounters they may have had with police," Halman said. "We want to talk to neighbors and make sure there isn't a gang affiliation."
The change occurred in August.
Scott Wilder, a sheriff's office spokesman, said the county sends applications to PCSO. The agency conducts credit checks, investigates social media sites and canvasses neighborhoods where the applicant currently lives or has lived in the past.
Findings are then reported to the county's human resources department.
Cody James Wesling had worked as a Polk County firefighter for nearly a year when he was federally indicted in May. Wesling, who went by "Little Savage," according to the federal indictment, was part of a "criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in narcotics distribution and acts of violence including acts involving murder."
Wesling, who is alleged to be a member of the 69ers Motorcycle Club gang, is one of five accused of killing Paul Anderson, 44, president of the Cross Bayou chapter of the Outlaws. Anderson was shot and killed Dec. 21 at an intersection while he was in his truck.
Halman said Wesling was a "model employee."
"We had no issue with him in our background check," Halman said.
But he added that the department may have found information about Wesling's past if they had talked more with neighbors, previous landlords and previous employers.
He said the department had discussed tightening the process earlier this year, but the Wesling arrest expedited the process.
Halman said the Sheriff's Office had the expertise to help them with the change.
"There are things that they are privy to that we are not privy to," Halman said of the sheriff's office investigative techniques. "They've been doing this a long time and they are the experts in that area."
Halman said he wants to make sure residents are safe.
"The whole idea is to make sure the caliber of individuals we hire for Polk County Fire Rescue are the best of the best," Halman said. "These guys and gals are going in and out of homes and we owe it to the public that we're hiring the best."
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