Collier County Sheriff's Office deputies now have the authority to enforce security measures regulating convenience businesses.

The Collier County Commission last week OK'd a sheriff's request for the Florida's "Convenience Business Security Act" to be adopted as a county ordinance. The security measures, which are meant to help protect convenience business employees and customers, include requiring security cameras, cash management systems and well-lit parking lots at businesses open between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., according to the Naples Daily News.

"Local enforcement is in the public interest and will facilitate prompt elimination of avoidable threats to the safety of visitors to, and employees of, convenience stores," said Michael Hedberg, the Collier County Sheriff's captain of legal services. Although state employees are authorized to enforce the act, their staff "has too few personnel to adequately enforce" it.