LAKELAND, Fla. — Nearly 1,000 signatures and counting, retired Lakeland police officer Phillip Smith says he never expected his online petition to gain such a large response.
“It’s police officers, it’s retired police officers, it’s friends of police officers. I don’t even know a thousand people, so I don’t know who it is, but it’s getting wonderful coverage. I love it,” he said.
Smith recently launched the petition to urge city leaders to implement annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for retired police officers…