“I had an issue a couple years back in 2010 with an officer who actually lied in court,”
Robert Petit says that was the day he lost trust in the Tampa Police Department
“I went down to internal affairs and made a complaint and it was kind of brushed off, they didn’t really investigate it,”
Thursday, he, along with a more than a dozen other citizens asked the chief of police how he plans to earn that trust back.
“At least they took the imitative to come out and put the meeting together,”
The evening marked the third town hall meeting ordered by the department of justice after it was found bicycle tickets were being issued disproportionately to the black bicyclists. The April report went on to say the program was unfair and ineffective.
“After seeing the numbers it was rather alarming.”
The DOJ issued 28 recommendations to be implemented in order to repair the damaged repution of the department such as sensitivity and diversity training. On Thursday they got feedback on those changes from the people it most affects and most in attendance felt they’re moving in the right direction.
“I believe chief ward and his administration and the entire Tampa Police department will do exactly whats needed to correct the problem,”
Noticeably absent however were city officials.
“What disheartened me was there were no elected leaders here.”
Leaving some to question the commitment behind the changes.
