St. Petersburg mayor's race revives community policing debate

ST. PETERSBURG — Something changed when police stopped walking a beat and started driving cars.

They forgot your name. They forgot where you lived. They forgot they should know things like that.

"The police car and the police radio was basically a major revolution," said criminology professor William Ruefle of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. "But it really hurt the communication and trust and dialogue between the police and the public."

Community policing is about re-establishing that. It's getting officers out of their cars and back onto the streets talking to, and getting to know, people again.

For 15 years St. Petersburg police officers got to know a lot of people. The department practiced a form of community policing unlike any other city in Florida: Neighborhoods were assigned their own officer.

Then police Chief Chuck Harmon did away with the program in 2006. Those officers sometimes ignored their responsibilities and abused their freedom, the chief said, and they were resented by their comrades.

But community policing never went away. It changed, the chief said, for the better.

But some of the people running for mayor might want to change it back.

Read story here.

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Comments

[Philosopher]

Gibbons response is proof positive that he lacks any original thoughts.