St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster has a host of issues to deal with as he begins the third month of his nascent administration. BayWalk. The budget deficit. The Rays. The homeless.
But it's his unilateral move to change the no-chase policy of the St. Petersburg Police Department that is ruffling the most feathers right now in City Hall.
Throughout the long campaign season last year, only two candidates — Foster and Democrat Scott Wagman — advocated reversing the police department's policy of only allowing car chases when pursuing violent felons.
Such a change has long been advocated by the city's police unions (the Suncoast Police Benevolent Association and the Pinellas County Fraternal Order of Police), who say that they've been frustrated at having to let vehicle burglary suspects flee because of the current policy, which went into effect back in 1994.
So it wasn't exactly a shock when Foster announced, after consulting with Police Chief Chuck Harmon, that he would expand the policy to allow police to chase suspected burglars and car thieves. But the manner in which the change was implemented — with no public debate — has left a sour taste among some council members and community leaders.
In December, Foster said that he wanted to get public input, and would look forward to discussing the issue at a community retreat in February. But at that retreat, although citizens at individual tables had their views recorded, their input had no effect, as the mayor announced that day he intended to adopt the new policy.
That didn't go down well.
Ray Tampa, president of the St. Petersburg chapter of the NAACP, walked out in disgust. "The decision was already made. He just rolled it out to us."
It's his hope that no fatalities result from the policy. "But I'm realistic enough to know," he says, "that the odds are people will be injured or killed if this is implemented." According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in the years 2006-2008 there was an annual average of 390 deaths due to police chase fatalities.
City Councilwoman Leslie Curran is also unhappy about the move. "I think if the Chief [Chuck Harmon] thought this would have been the thing to do, he would have done it earlier."
When asked his thoughts after Foster spoke about the issue at the Tiger Bay club meeting in St. Pete last week, Councilman Herb Polson paused for over 20 seconds before commenting. "I don't like it," he began. "I'm not sure that it's well thought out… If you look at our history, [in] 70-some chases over the last few years… I believe a third have resulted in crashes. I think that should say something about the validity of doing it an highly urbanized area."
The department's current policy of only pursuing violent felons is favored by the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) and NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Administration). But it's not the system used in Tampa, which has had its share of controversies over the years because it employs the more liberal chase policy. The St. Pete Times reported last week that there were 20 people killed in high-speed chases between 1993 to 2002 in Tampa, prompting Councilwoman Curran to say, "I don't think Tampa and Pinellas County are the departments that we want to emulate."
Ron Kelley, a retired deputy with the Osceola County's Sheriff's Office, is among the former law enforcement officials dedicated to minimizing the risks of police pursuits. He says that the average vehicular pursuit in the U.S. lasts about three minutes, or approximately two-and-a-half to three miles. Pursuits that last longer that that, he says, can increase in speed and trigger dangerous driving actions by the fleeing driver. In an email he writes, "Their only objective is to evade arrest at the time, without consideration for their own lives, much less the lives of anyone else." (It doesn't help that perpetrators run a good chance of speeding their way to 15 minutes of online fame: a YouTube search for "high speed chase" yields close to 5,000 videos.)
Speaking at the Tiger Bay meeting, the mayor acknowledged that there were concerns in the community about reversing the 16-year restrictions on police chases.
"We're not going to have cowboys," he declared. And he added that police officers would not be driving 70-80 mph through neighborhoods where children play. "That's absolutely never going to happen," he emphasized.
But that wasn't mollifying Councilman Herb Polson. "Now he talks about 'Well, it wouldn't in the course of the daytime, it wouldn't be in neighborhoods, it won't be when schools are letting out. You don't know when an incident is going to occur. I think it's a slippery slope, and I would have preferred to have seen it stay the way that it was."
Foster stresses that a supervisor will have to authorize the pursuit after it is requested by an officer. But that's not making Councilwoman Curran sleep any easier. She says that the now infamous quote by Sgt. Karl Lounge ("It's game on now," he said upon learning of the new policy) troubles her because "that sergeant will be making that decision."
In the speech at Tiger Bay, Foster disowned Lounge's comment as well.
But Sgt. Lounge says he's been misconstrued. In an e-mail to CL, Lounge said that in no way does he endorse a "cowboy mentality" to turn the streets of St. Pete into the wild west of police chases. Lounge wrote that he of all people understands the danger of vehicle pursuits, because he just recently returned to the force after recovering from a broken ankle sustained in a foot chase following a vehicle pursuit.
He says crimes such as car thefts generally happen late at night, when the risk to the community is significantly reduced. And the critics? "Frankly," he writes, "if some of those same critics would focus on correcting some of the social problems and taking control of the young criminals in their own communities, we wouldn't be having this discussion."
But concerns about the new policy (which goes into effect within the next month and a half) show no signs of abating. Opponents hear the rhetoric by Foster and Sgt. Lounge and remain skeptical.
City Councilman Jim Kennedy has scheduled time on the Council's agenda this Thursday morning to discuss the issue. But the power of the bully pulpit means objections will be duly noted, and for now, ignored.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2010.