The Key West Police Department’s youngest officer was just weeks out of the academy, still riding with a training officer, when dispatchers reported a shooting in New Town.
“That was my first, most eye-opening experience with ‘real police work,’” recalled Officer Joelle Deese, 24. “The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but all my training kicked in and I knew this is what I’m meant to do.”
The pandemic added new protocols and priorities to police work, and Deese is in the thick of it, working nights on Duval Street from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. She often patrols the packed 200 block, where alcohol elevates emotions. Key West police expertly de-escalate situations and patiently pick their battles.
Deese made the department’s first arrest for mask noncompliance in the pandemic’s early days of spring 2020.
“When it hits a certain time on Duval, words get a lot harsher and there’s much more opposition to masks,” Deese said as Police Chief Sean Brandenberg nodded knowingly.
The city’s 10 p.m. New Year curfew was “a little rough,” she acknowledged. While many locals were supportive, it was mostly tourists — and their alcohol-fueled arguments — behind most issues, Deese said.
One of the department’s 12 female officers, the North Carolina native said she cherishes her fellow night-shift officers.
“The whole Key West community is second to none,” she said. “I’m not from here, so when the COVID checkpoints were up, I got to know so many great locals. Now, when someone stops to thank me for helping their family during a medical call, that’s an amazing feeling. Of course, people I’ve arrested also recognize me. That’s always interesting.”
Despite holding two science degrees, Deese has fallen in love with law enforcement — and with the island she’s sworn to serve and protect, in sickness and in health.
