Yesterday, Tampa City Councilchair Orlando Gudes sent an email to Mayor Jane Castor calling on her to suspend the Tampa Police Department’s controversial crime free multi-housing program, which started during Castor’s tenure as police chief.
“Mayor Castor, I am requesting that you suspend the Crime-Free Multi Housing Program for ninety days, so that this program may be re-evaluated,” Gudes wrote. “Our office has received several phone calls regarding the article in the Tampa Bay Times.”
The investigation by the Times was released yesterday. It revealed that TPD teamed up with landlords to target renters who’ve committed crimes since 2013. Of the 1,100 renters flagged by the program, about 90% were Black. Many of the crimes were petty—including panhandling—and some renters evicted were simply arrested, and never convicted of a crime.
“I have also received calls from local officials and community leaders requesting that this program be suspended,” Gudes' letter continued. “Please give this matter serious consideration. I look forward to hearing your response regarding this matter. Thank you.”
“We need this time for the city council and the mayor to decide if this is something that Tampa Police should be involved in,” Gudes, a former Tampa police officer, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “And if not, we need to decide what to do next accordingly.”
TPD’s Twitter has been defending the housing program since the story dropped, sharing anecdotal videos of a couple of Black residents saying they want the program to stay. They accused the Times of not sharing one Black resident's perspective in the investigation, even though the newspaper did.
Mayor Castor, who implemented the program when she was police chief, defended the program to the Times , saying it reduced crime. But while crime went down at the places where the program was enacted, it was also going down all across Tampa at the same time. The Times said Castor “remains bullish about the program.
Crime free multi-housing in Tampa is part of a nationwide program that links landlords and police together, in order to evict tenants who get into trouble with the law. In other cities, the program’s implementation has resulted in lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union for discriminating against Black people.
It’s unclear if the local ACLU chapters will take legal action, but CL has reached out to both local ACLU contacts and the mayor’s office and will update this post with any new information.
And his isn’t the first stain on Castor’s relationship with Tampa’s Black community.
Tampa’s crime-free housing case is exceptional in that the program was implemented around the same time as TPD’s controversial “Biking While Black” program, which targeted Black bicyclists and led to an investigation into the police department by the U.S. Department of Justice. Former police chief Brian Dugan—who just retired last week—later said that TPD ‘evolved’ in that situation, but the department continued to oversee the crime-free multi housing program at the same time.
Send anonymous news tips to cltampabay_tips@protonmail.com. Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team works tirelessly to bring you news on how coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.
Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2021.