Police department utilizes grants to expand equipment and capabilities

Longboat Key Police Department has a new Sea-Doo that will help the agency respond to noise complaints in busy boating areas.

By S.T. Cardinal
| 5:00 a.m. February 18, 2026

Longboat Key Police Officer Dallas Troyer will soon perform marine patrols on a Sea-Doo GTX 170, the newest piece of LKPD equipment secured through West Coast Inland Navigation District grant funds.

Longboat Key
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The Longboat Key Police Department just got a new Sea-Doo.

The GTX 170 personal watercraft will be painted in a police livery before marine patrol takes to Sarasota Bay with it. The fourth vessel in LKPD’s marine fleet will give officers access to areas that aren’t reachable via boat.

“On a holiday weekend when there’s a large amount of boats out on Jewfish Key, if we take out the Jet Ski, we can get in and service the issues that are on the sandbar without maybe getting your propellor hung up in someone’s anchor line or that sort of thing,” said Longboat Police Sgt. Adam Montfort.

Officer Dallas Troyer will be the main user of the Sea-Doo. He also pointed out the usefulness of the vessel in responding to noise complaints on Jewfish Key, a small island in Sarasota Bay on the northern tip of Longboat Key that is a popular gathering spot for boaters.

“Part of our noise issue is we have 200 boats out on Jewfish Key and a person in the middle is blaring music, but it’s projecting out. We can’t put a 32-foot boat on the sandbar. There’s no way to get up in there,” Troyer said. “If we can use a Jet Ski to get in there where you’re just using jet propulsion to get you through versus trying to put dual 350s through a sandbar, it makes us that much more of an asset to the water and what we can provide to the town.”

Urban flood rescue

To go along with the new equipment, Longboat Key Police officers are performing training to know how to best use the equipment. Longboat Police Sgt. Adam Montfort said last fall he participated in an “urban flood rescue” training course. Montfort said it was a very physically demanding, but useful course. One of the exercises is rescuing a “combative swimmer.”

“To get that last breath, they’ll push you under the water. You have to understand what’s going to happen and how to bring these people back to shore,” Montfort said. “Now, I would be 100% comfortable in my abilities right now to jump into Longboat Pass with that current going and pull someone out of the water.”

This fall, Officer Dallas Troyer will take the same course. Montfort said rescue is typically a Fire Rescue responsibility, but the police department often arrives first, making the training vital.

The Sea Doo was bought by the department for $18,178 using grant funds received by the West Coast Inland Navigation District. Longboat Key Police Chief Russ Mager said grant funding helps the department greatly.

“During Fiscal Year 2025, the Longboat Key Police Department actively pursued grant funding and external financial support to enhance public safety operations, officer safety, and specialized enforcement capabilities,” Mager said in an email. “These grants offset local costs while improving services, equipment, and enforcement initiatives for the community.”

LKPD’s mobile response unit is a 14-foot trailer equipped with generators, a chainsaw, a Jon boat and other equipment helpful in emergency situations.

In the previous fiscal year, the town received a similar grant from WCIND. In a year overshadowed by the impacts of hurricanes, the department opted to expand its emergency response capabilities with the $17,769 purchase of a 14-foot “mobile response unit” trailer.

Inside, the trailer is outfitted with a chainsaw, four gas-powered generators, a small Jon boat, non-perishable food, a water cooler, a backboard, water pump and other equipment that can help in emergency situations.

author

S.T. Cardinal

S.T. "Tommy" Cardinal is the Longboat Key news reporter. The Sarasota native earned a degree from the University of Central Florida in Orlando with a minor in environmental studies. In Central Florida, Cardinal worked for a monthly newspaper covering downtown Orlando and College Park. He then worked for a weekly newspaper in coastal South Carolina where he earned South Carolina Press Association awards for his local government news coverage and photography.