Sheriff offers to take over city's policing

Largo officials oppose Sheriff Everett Rice's proposal, made a day after police Chief Jerry Bloechle announced his retirement.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 2000

LARGO -- A day after Largo's police chief announced his retirement, Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice said the city should strongly consider handing over policing duties to the Sheriff's Office.

"Now is a good time to address the issue," Rice said Wednesday, a day after Chief Jerry Bloechle announced he was leaving after 20 years with the department. "It's not something I would want to impose on them, but it makes law enforcement more efficient."

Bloechle is leaving in the wake of a scandal involving allegations of sexual conduct between officers and members of the department's youth Explorer post, a Boy Scout program that provides on-the-job training for youths ages 14 to 21.

Rice, who already provides law-enforcement service to several Pinellas County municipalities, said he pitched the idea about two years ago in a meeting with Bloechle, then-Mayor Thomas Feaster and City Manager Steven Stanton.

"I told them they had a duty to (discuss the proposal) with their citizens," the sheriff recalled.

Rice said he was met with silence.

On Wednesday, city officials reacted to the idea with point-blank rejection.

"What we're trying to do in Largo is develop a community and I don't think you do that by contracting with the sheriff," said Commissioner Pat Gerard.

"I wouldn't want to open that can of worms," said Mayor Bob Jackson, referring to the heated debate around town in the late 1970s over contracting with the Sheriff's Office.

For Largo to make the switch, commissioners would have to pass an ordinance or residents would have to approve the change in a referendum. The 124 sworn Largo officers would likely become sheriff's deputies, if they pass a background check and a polygraph test.

Rice said Largo could save at least 40 percent of the Police Department's $11.2-million budget. He did not provide details.

He listed several other reasons why the change would make sense: Much of Largo is surrounded by areas patrolled by the Sheriff's Office, he said, so taking over Largo would help break down communication barriers between law enforcement agencies. Rice said he frequently listens to officers on police scanners try to figure out which street is patrolled by which department, whether it be Largo, Pinellas Park or the sheriff's deputies.

"It's confusing," he said.

But city officials argue that the switch would not be fiscally responsible. A good chunk of the $7.9-million the city spent renovating the city's government services complex was poured into police headquarters. Jackson said he fears Largo officers may lose their pension, which he believes is among the best in the county.

Stanton said he was focusing his efforts on finding a replacement to Bloechle, who said in resigning that allegations involving the Explorer post took a toll on him. An investigation found that three officers had sexual relationships with Explorers, and that two supervisors should have reacted to rumors about the trysts.

Bloechle, who at 49 was hospitalized last week with an irregular heartbeat, will earn an annual pension of $45,439. He can collect when he turns 52.

Stanton said he will conduct a national search for a replacement. Commissioners said they agree with Stanton's thinking, although most of them believe someone from within the department can do the job without being tainted by the legacy of the Explorer scandal.

Stanton said he would not rule out internal job candidates, but he questioned whether Bloechle's top commanders have enough experience to run the department.

The top internal candidates would be Deputy Chief Judy Gershkowitz, 44, a 15-year veteran with the department, Capt. James Johns, 49, who has been with Largo since 1978, and Capt. John Carroll, 42, who celebrated his 20th anniversary with the department last month.

Drew Diamond, senior associate with the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that works with police chiefs, said there would be some advantages to Largo looking outside the department for a new leader.

"The selection of someone to run a department is largely a community-political decision," said Diamond, who retired as police chief of Tulsa, Okla., in 1991.

"In general situations like (Largo's), it does add some momentum to looking for a change of direction outside the agency."

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