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CURTIS KRUEGERThe actions that got St. Petersburg officers into trouble are standard procedure for many Hillsborough officers.
ST. PETERSBURG - More than two dozen St. Petersburg Police Department employees got in trouble this week because officers sneaked into a computer system to peek at calls they could be sent on.
But inside the squad cars of several other Tampa Bay area law enforcement agencies, from the Tampa Police Department to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, officers don't have to sneak. The same information is easily available to them.
Officers such as Tampa police Sgt. Kevin Howell say that's a good thing, because the computer listing of incoming calls allows officers to work more efficiently.
"As a patrol officer I like it. As a supervisor I like it even more," Howell said Friday.
Two St. Petersburg police officers were suspended because officials said they used the computers to dodge unwanted calls. Most, however, were reprimanded because they acquired and used restricted passwords.
Despite the prospect of using the computers to skip out on duty, officers in several Tampa Bay agencies say they like the technology for exactly the opposite reason. It also allows officers to get a jump on their work.
St. Petersburg police, and other agencies, have laptop computers in their squad cars that can be used to view a listing of which officers have been sent where. They also show which calls for assistance have been received by dispatchers, but not yet assigned to specific officers. The computers list low-priority calls, such as a complaints about abandoned vehicles; and high-priority calls, such as a robbery in progress.
Clearwater Deputy Chief Dewey Williams said officers scan their computer screens and volunteer to start working on cases before anyone has dispatched them.
"It's not uncommon at all to hear them say, "Put me on that call on Cleveland Street, I'll take care of it.' So it's really worked in our favor."
In other cases, officers get on the radio and share information about people and places, because the computer shows them where their colleagues are being going.
Howell, of the Tampa Police Department, said the computers help in other ways. An officer can look at a computer screen and see, for example, three complaints about auto burglaries in the same area. An officer in that area can volunteer to take all three calls. Otherwise, three officers could be dispatched, taking up unnecessary time.
Several police officials acknowledged officers could use the computers to dodge unpleasant calls, such as death investigations. But many cited a powerful force that works against this abuse: peer pressure. No one likes working on a squad with officers who won't do their share.
"Peer pressure is a very significant fact when it comes to workload, and who's pulling their weight and who's not," Williams said. "Peer pressure can work wonders where supervision has oftentimes failed."
If someone developed a reputation for dodging unpleasant calls, "your zone people will ask to meet you behind the warehouse," said Lt. Rod Reder of the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office, whose deputies also can view the pending calls. It was a complaint from a St. Petersburg officer that launched the investigation culminating in this week's discipline.
About two years ago, most St. Petersburg officers had been barred from accessing the yet-to-be dispatched calls from their cruiser computers. The system had been overwhelmed by the high number of officers signed on and was running too slowly.
Some officers found a way around the ban. They obtained passwords and logged into the restricted system.
In two cases, officers were accused of using the computer to skip unpleasant work. In one, an officer was accused of making a traffic stop to avoid having to go to a scene where a woman had committed suicide. The officer learned about the pending suicide call from a fellow officer who had used an unauthorized password and checked the computer. The officer denied shirking her duty, and said she was in the process of investigating the driver before she learned of the suicide.
Despite the problems, St. Petersburg police Chief Chuck Harmon said he likes the technology, and wants all of his officers to have it again, as they did in years past.
"Supervisors currently have access to these screens, which is a good management tool for them to have, and in the future the officers will all have access to it," Harmon said. He said the problem in the recent case was that some officers tapped into a system others didn't have, and "a couple times people used it to avoid calls, and they shouldn't have done that."
Deputies also have limited capacity to view the data at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. In Pinellas County, deputies can see calls that have already been dispatched, but not pending ones.