No sense of security

There can be no more pretending that the St. Petersburg Police Department has the city's growing threat of violent crime under control. After a number of particularly senseless shooting deaths this year, violence marred a Christmas evening gathering at BayWalk theater and shopping complex, the city's entertainment center. As hundreds of people gathered outside the sold-out theater, one man sparked a stampede by throwing money into the air and another challenged others to fight. When police finally arrived to disperse the crowd, someone fired a gun into the air repeatedly, causing panic. Another shooting down the street left one man wounded. And police had to resort to pepper spray to break up a brawl that involved teenage girls and adult women.

In short, it wasn't another great day in St. Petersburg, borrowing from a phrase Mayor Rick Baker is fond of using. Such violence at a public gathering spot is troubling enough, but the weakness of the city's official response is of even greater concern.

"The police handled it well," said Baker, in an inexplicably mild summation of a dangerous situation. If that were true, the police would have anticipated a large crowd (same as last Christmas) and had enough officers on hand to control it. Where is Baker's sense of concern and outrage at what happened to his city?

Here was police Chief Chuck Harmon's pitiful assessment: "We'll probably have more folks there (next Christmas) than we did this year." Probably? If by "folks" Harmon means more police officers, that sounds like a good idea. Yet such a wishy-washy response to panic and violence in downtown St. Petersburg hardly reassures city residents that their safety is Harmon's upmost concern.

At least City Council member Bill Foster expressed some sense of alarm, maybe because he was at BayWalk with his family that night and got caught up in the melee. "It was as frightening a moment in my city's downtown as I've ever had," Foster said. "It was just mass chaos...a recipe for disaster, and we were ill prepared."

It doesn't sound as though the police handled the situation well according to that eyewitness. Without a reassuring city response, more people will be scared away from BayWalk and downtown after dark, hardly a message city officials want to be sending.

Even before this latest breakdown of order, there was growing concern by city residents that their police force is understaffed and too passive in enforcing the law. While declining city revenues make it difficult to add officers, Baker could ask Sheriff Jim Coats for help when the city knows it will need more manpower.

Finally, Baker and Harmon need to acknowledge the seriousness of what happened at and around BayWalk Christmas night. St. Petersburg isn't Dodge City or even Ybor City, where violence and arrests are more common. Other events are coming to downtown that could attract the same volatile mixture of large crowds, bored teenagers and troublemakers.

Harmon needs to show a sense of urgency and independence from politics as he addresses the city's policing needs. He and Baker may pretend there is no reason for concern, but if the public feels otherwise, it will act on its fears.

We'd like to see the same energy and innovation Baker brings to other problems put into policing. Sycophants won't tell you you're losing control of your city's sense of security, Mr. Mayor, but we just did.

[Last modified December 30, 2007, 20:30:38]