Positive interactions with people can reduce friction, Chief Tony Holloway says.
BY KELSEY AL and ANDREW CAPLAN
NNB Student Reporters
ST. PETERSBURG – When police officers appear in a high-income neighborhood, residents often assume one of their neighbors is hurt. But when the neighborhood is low-income and predominantly black, people wonder who is going to be arrested.
And that, said police Chief Tony Holloway, is a difference in perception he wants to change.
Since he became chief 10 months ago, Holloway said, he has emphasized what he calls “community relations.” He wants people in every neighborhood to feel more comfortable around officers and see them in a more positive light.
“The biggest thing we should be talking about is community relations,” said Holloway, 53. “We want to be very diverse and very open. We want our officers to get out of their cars and meet you.”
That’s the premise of the chief’s “park, walk and talk” initiative. For at least an hour each week, all 550 sworn officers – including supervisors and the chief – must get out of their vehicles, walk the streets they patrol and chat with residents.
Holloway had the same policy as chief in Clearwater and it seemed effective, he said.
When he was hired in St. Petersburg, Holloway inherited a fault line between the department and many people in the city’s predominantly black neighborhoods and a department that itself was riven by racial tension.
Like most police departments in the South, St. Petersburg had no black officers for many years. The first black officers were hired in 1949, but they could not patrol white neighborhoods or arrest white people. They could drive only one cruiser, which was called C-52. The C was for “colored.”
In 1965, 12 of the department’s 15 black officers filed suit in federal district court for the right to patrol white neighborhoods and arrest white people. Three years later, a federal appeals court ruled in their favor.
In time, those officers became known as the “Courageous 12.” Only two of them are still alive. Freddie Crawford, 77, and Leon Jackson, 74, were honored this month in a ceremony at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum.
Among those on hand was Holloway, who acknowledged the debt that he and every black officer in St. Petersburg owes the 12.
“I’d like to thank them for opening the doors for where we are today,” he said.
Holloway is well aware of the gulf between his department and many of the city’s black residents.
In 1996, an 18-year-old black man was shot and killed by a white police officer after a traffic stop. There were riots that night and again three weeks later, when a grand jury declined to charge the officer. St. Petersburg became a national story, just as Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore have been in recent months.
Nineteen years later, many black residents think police enforce the law unevenly. They contend that officers are often insensitive and too quick to stop young black men for questioning.
In turn, many officers are mindful that crime rates are high in some predominantly black neighborhoods. When three officers were murdered in 2011, the gunmen were black.
Within police ranks, some black officers bristle at what they call a double standard for minorities in promotions and discipline.
The internal rancor was one reason that Mayor Rick Kriseman hired Holloway, who as police chief in Clearwater and Somerville, Mass., had a reputation as a steady, even-handed leader.
One objective of the park, walk and talk initiative is to narrow the chasm between the department and distrustful residents, to lessen the preconceived notion that seeing an officers means trouble or an emergency, Holloway said.
Law enforcement’s interactions with residents should be seen as “community relations, not policing,” Holloway said, and positive involvement could help prevent friction and riots in the future.
Now, an encounter with police can mean free tickets to a Tampa Bay Rays game.
The Rays, who play two blocks from the Police Department, have helped establish a spinoff to park, walk and talk called “park, walk and cheer.” When officers are walking the neighborhoods, they can give up to four ticket vouchers to Rays games to people they encounter.
The vouchers go to young people who are doing well in school or people who have done something good in the community, said Holloway.
Officers must fill out a short form to submit to their supervisors after awarding the vouchers. Voucher holders can go to the box office at Tropicana Field and exchange the vouchers for a baseline-box ticket to any home game this season.
“They can go to a Yankees game, a Red Sox game,” said Holloway. “It’s any game they want to go to.”
The vouchers come with an attached baseball card featuring one of the Rays players. The card can be ripped off and saved for a potential autograph before the game.
Officer Joshua Hall, 40, has been with the department for 14 years. He says he loves the chief’s community initiatives because they give him another way to interact with residents.
Hall said he generally looks for youngsters but there is no limitation on who can get the vouchers.
“If they say to me, ‘Yeah, I love baseball. I’ve never been to a game,’ then that’s a perfect hook and you give them the tickets,” Hall said. “The surprise factor is good. They love it. It’s good seeing the surprise on their faces.”
NNB student reporter Jeffrey Zanker contributed to this report.