There is an editorial in todays edition of the Tampa Bay Times (on-line edition) touching issues with the St Petersburg Police Department that the next chief needs to address. President Mark Marlands response is listed below: Editorial Board, I would like to respond to the Times Editorial about the new priorities of the new SPPD Police Chief. You did 4 bullet points that address police relations in the black community, police involved shootings involving suicidal subjects, the departments pursuit policy, and lastly the department’s take home cruiser policy. First, the relations between Police and the black community are not as strained as YOU would lead people to believe. If the Times investigated crimes for a living YOU would be out of work as YOU do incomplete investigations. You only talk with a very small fraction of the community who has a special interest agenda and then write a story with a slanted and anti police view. The Police interact with hundreds of people in the black community everyday and the only ones who seem to have an issue with the police are criminals or their relatives, a vast majority of the black community interacts with the Police just fine. Here is my suggestion, do some research and stop writing stories based on the views and assumptions of a few. You mention that Officer involved shootings involving suicidal subjects has increased this year and like usual you automatically blame the Police which is a cowardly response but one that has been printed by this paper for years. The stats show these shootings have increased but by no means are the Police Officers at fault. The Police Officers are responding to the deadly situations as trained. Each Officer involved in these incidents wishes it could have been resolved differently but the fact is, when someone is truly suicidal and has decided to act on it nothing is going to change the outcome. You suggest the Police need more training in how to deal with the mentally ill. I would like to see what training you are talking about. When a suicidal subject is pointing a firearm at a Police Officer what type of training would you like to see? Let me guess, you watch a lot of television and assume we are action figures. Maybe we should shoot the gun out of their hand, or maybe deploy a Spider man type net, or maybe we should engage them in some interesting conversation in hopes they don’t shoot and kill the Officer?? Really, why don’t you come out of your protected bubble of an office and see what Officers deal with on a daily basis before you criticize their actions. If the Editorial Board took the time to ride with Officers they would see Officers engage with mentally ill people everyday and the Officers act appropriately and do a fantastic job but when a suicidal person has their mind made up and are armed nothing will change that. Next, you talk about the pursuit policy. I’m not going to even take the time to address this as you continue to beat a dead horse and have for 4 years. Lastly, you mention the Take Home car policy. This policy has been in affect since Rick Baker was in office. The policy is an industry standard that saves the city money on the longevity of vehicles, time management, and the ability to deploy their assets properly, however, you are overlooking the most important money saving benefit, Officer retention. The Police department for years had an enormous Officer turnover rate. Once the program was put into place and EXPANDED, Officer turnover slowed dramatically. Officer retention is an extremely important issue. The city spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to train Police Officers to just have them become well trained Officers to only take their skills to another department who is willing to offer a benefit which is an industry standard. The money saved on Officer retention far exceeds the cost of the program without including any of the other benefits to the city. If I could make a suggestion?! I think the Times would be better served with stories that talk about the positive work done by the St. Petersburg Police department. As a person that works here I see hundreds of Officers a day who do a great job but you won’t report that, you would prefer to attack them, their methods, and their benefits which is despicable. Respectfully, Mark Marland, President Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 14:55:38 +0000
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