Bill Foster addressed in detail today his controversial move to change the St. Petersburg Police Department’s chase policy. Last week Foster said that he wanted the department to be able to chase suspected burglars and car thieves to the current policy, which only allows officers to chase suspects for violent crimes.
Speaking at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club before a Suncoast Tiger Bay audience, Foster said, “We’re not going to have cowboys,” adding that police officers would not be driving 70-80 mph through neighborhoods where children play. “That’s absolutely never going to happen,” he emphasized.
Foster called it “unfortunate” Sgt. Karl Lounge’s recent published quote upon learning of the new policy that it was now “game on”, saying, “it is not game on. We’re not going to have recklessness in the city of St. Pete.” Foster said it the change was simply a “slight modification” that allows St. Pete now to mirror many other jurisdictions’ policy, including Tampa and Pinellas County.
The chase policy was one of just several issues that the Mayor discussed today during his 40 minute appearance, which began with him eschewing the normal 20 minute speech that usually begins such Tiger Bay meetings, instead allowing those in the audience to call out subjects, where he then wrote down and got around to discussing some of the subjects mentioned (he did not speak about the Tampa Bay Rays or their stadium situation) The last 20 minutes were per usual, where audience members stood up to ask formal questions of the main speaker.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.
