- December 4, 2025
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At separate community meetings Tuesday, Longboat Key’s new police chief Russ Mager described the importance of “visibility” for a police department, while demonstrating that principle himself in another way.
Attending back-to-back meetings, Mager made himself available to the public for questions and discussions on his approach to policing on Longboat Key. For Rotary Club of Longboat Key member Jeff Driver, hosting Mager allowed the club to welcome the new chief and gauge ways the club can help the department.
“It’s a small town, so I think Rotary is one of several civic organizations that can welcome them, obviously, but also find ways to support them,” Driver said.
Mager, who started as chief in August, said one of his focuses in his new role is to ensure police are visible on the island. For him, that’s attending meetings and making himself available. For officers, it’s being stationed on Gulf of Mexico Drive to let residents and visitors know police are on patrol.
“I think it makes people feel safe when they’re visible. I think it deters crime,” Mager said.
Other buzzwords among the department lately are transparency and collaboration. At a “Let’s Talk Longboat” meeting hosted by the town at Bayfront Park earlier Tuesday, Mager answered a question from an attendee on what he plans to do differently from his predecessor. He said he can’t speak on what his predecessor did or did not do, but that he believes “in full transparency.” Town manager Howard Tipton said that transparency is not just from the police department to the citizens, but in cross-department communication within the town of Longboat Key.
“One of the things that struck us during the interview process was the communication skills,” Tipton said. “Sometimes the police department can act as an island and not work well with other departments. We want them working together, and we have seen that so far.”
At the Rotary meeting, Mager spoke in front of the 11 attendees, explaining his background and what brought him to Longboat Key before answering questions. One question was about open carry after a 1st District Court of Appeals ruling paved the way for law-abiding Floridians to carry guns openly and without a permit. That decision and its ramifications has some law enforcement leaders worried, including Mager, though he said he doesn’t believe it will have much of an impact on Longboat Key but could cause issues in Sarasota.
“This rule is very Wild West-ish. I don’t like that,” he said. “People have the right to carry guns, but I don’t know if that means they should be carrying them around everywhere.”
Open carry does not mean the public has unfettered rights to walk around with a firearm. There are still restrictions on where a gun can be brought including courthouses, government meetings, schools and colleges, and other restricted locations described in Florida statute 790.06.12(a). Private landowners and business owners can also prohibit firearms as they reserve the right to tell anyone to leave the premises for any reason.
