From Police Chief to Guard House

Visitors to Residents’ Beach are often surprised to be greeted by the friendly smile of former Marco Island police chief Al Schettino, who does four four-hour shifts a week at the island’s popular beach club. Schettino goes out of his way to be friendly.

“I want to get their name, use their name, and interact with them,” Schettino said, “and get to know them and remember their name. I do that by really taking a look at their membership card. I just want to see their name, say hello. I just love interacting with people, whether it’s residents or visitors or other people in the community. That’s the best part of it. I just enjoy talking to people, being positive with them. I have an upbeat attitude and personality.”

Friendliness has always been Schettino’s MO. He was Marco’s police chief from 2014-2019. He was a school resource officer at Tommie Barfield Elementary before that.

“I like to make everybody’s day,” he said, “put a smile on somebody’s face. That’s what it’s all about. It’s so great. That’s one of the philosophies I had as a chief. My philosophy was, especially in law enforcement, how important it was for the officer to be part of the community. And to interact. And it’s great if they can live in the community. To just learn the community, the people in it. And there was nothing I thought was more important than when somebody needs an officer in law enforcement that they see a familiar face. When you see a smiling face, whatever issue you’re going through at the time, you feel a little bit more comfortable because the officer is somebody you know.”

Throughout his shift, Schettino steps outside the guard house to greet guests, whether they’re in a vehicle, bicycling, or walking.

“Everybody feels comfortable,” Schettino said, “it’s just having a friendly face to interact with. People get caught up in life, they get busy and they don’t take the time to just smile and say hello. That’s all it is. It’s simple.”

Schettino appreciates the simplicity of the job. His employer is the Marco Island Civic Association (MICA).

“It’s just working the front gate,” he said. “The gatehouse for the MICA beach access. Our responsibility is the security of the facility as well as monitoring who comes into the park. Our job is to make sure that they have their identification and they belong on the property. What I enjoy is interacting with the residents of the community, many that I know, and just being able to say hello, see how everything’s going with them, a little bit of chatter between ourselves about things. The main point is just to make sure the members are allowed to come on the property. I look at the ID card. We have a visual of the boardwalk on the card. It was flowers last year. I always look at it in more detail because I want to know their name.”

A lady and her friend approach the guard house. The lady has her husband’s pass and her expired pass from last year. She explains that she must have left her current card at home. Schettino asks her to park her car while he confirms her membership on the computer. He’s always happy to help the customer.

“My whole career was public service,” he said. “I remember when I was in high school, the guidance counselor asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to be a police officer.’ He asked me why I wanted to do that. My answer was, ‘I want to help people.’ That was it.”

Schettino says his law enforcement background comes in handy in his job at Residents’ Beach.

“Yeah, it does,” he said. “It helps with the interaction with people that might have an issue with certain things. It definitely helps. But most of the people are wonderful. There’s really no issues with anybody. Everybody shows their cards and says hello, good morning. Once in a while, you get people that don’t understand what it is and they’ll try to get in. They think it’s a public facility and you’ll have to explain the rules to them.”

A common interaction occurs when someone wanders up from the beach and wants to exit through Residents’ Beach.

“A lot of times we’ll get people from the beach side who come in and think it’s a public access point,” Schettino said. “We just try to educate them about how it works and let them know that there’s a beach access down by the Madeira they can come up through. And we’ll give them the information on what you need to be a member and that type of thing.”

Schettino said it’s rare that someone gives him a hard time about the rules.

“Once in a while it does happen,” he said, “but just a few will give you a hard time for the most part. You try to explain everything to them and that’s it. Most people say they might not be happy to not be able to come in here like they thought. But they understand it.”

Schettino said the overwhelming majority of Marco Islanders are easy to deal with.

“I would say 99.95 percent,” he said. “They’re really all good. You’ve gotta follow whatever the policy is here. The policy is you’ve gotta show your I.D.; you can’t use someone else’s I.D.”

Like many Marco Islanders, Schettino’s just happy to be living here.

“I’m so grateful for what I have in life,” he said. “I’m so grateful to be here. I’m so blessed. And I remember that every day I get up. I thank God for what we have. And people remind you of it. They’ll have a temporary pass; they’re a relative of an owner that’s a member. They’ll be coming in their last day, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, we’ve got to go back up north.’ And they’re so depressed that they have to leave. I’ll say, ‘Yeah, it’s pretty special here.’”

Just then a smiling member pulls up in a convertible. Schettino walks out of the guard house to greet him, but the member beats him to the punch.

“From police chief to the guard house,” the member laughs. “That’s a step up!”