ST. PETERSBURG - Police chief Chuck Harmon on Wednesday said he investigated allegations that license plate numbers were recorded by police at a celebration for a boxing champion and determined that it did not happen.
Members of the Uhuru movement last week told Harmon during a community meeting that they wanted to know why officers copied plate numbers of cars parked at the Coliseum in honor of Ronald "Winky" Wright, the world junior middleweight champion from St. Petersburg.
Some members of the Uhuru organization, an activist group that addresses social and economic issues affecting African-Americans, described it as racial profiling.
Harmon said Wednesday that supervisors asked the officers who worked the event whether they wrote down any numbers. They said no. Harmon also said administrators checked the communication center dispatch logs to see whether any computer searches were done for license tags.
None were found, Harmon said.
"I'm pretty confident that we weren't out there running tags," Harmon said.
