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Following Dallas, Bob Buckhorn says it’s an “ugly time in America”

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Responding to the attack on the Dallas Police Department which killed five officers and wounded seven others, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Police Chief Eric Ward expressed their sorrow and condolences Friday. In discussing the breakdown in the relationship between the police and people of color nationally, they both maintained that Tampa is in better shape than in many other parts of the country. However, the mayor acknowledged it wouldn’t take much to disrupt that alliance. “On any given night in America, something…

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Andrew Warren says rebuke by federal judge last year is no big deal

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Andrew Warren, the former federal prosecutor running for Hillsborough County State Attorney, was rebuked by a federal judge last summer, who said a request for time off was made in violation of a local rule of the court. The response came after Warren asked the judge to recess the court for two days so that he could attend a “Leadership Tampa” event sponsored by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Warren, a Democrat, served in the Justice Department for eight years before stepping…

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TPD to hold community meetings to get feedback on DOJ report on bike citations

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Nine days after a report issued out by the Justice Department concluded that the Tampa Police Department’s policy of citing black bicyclists was ineffective but not discriminatory, Chief Eric Ward addressed the City Council on Thursday to discuss the steps he will take to implement the report’s recommendations. The report was initiated a year ago, after Mayor Bob Buckhorn and former Chief Jane Castor called for the DOJ’s  Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to investigate the police department, in…

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Justice Dept. says Tampa Police Dept.’s citation of black cyclists wasn’t discriminatory, but also wasn’t effective in stopping crime

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(Updated) The Tampa Police Department’s policy of stopping and citing black bicyclists was not discriminatory, concluded a report issued Tuesday by the Justice Department. “The bottom-line appears to be that the TPD ‘burdened’ Black bicyclists by disproportionately stopping them in the name of ‘benefiting’ Black communities by increasing their public safety,” the report says. “Yet, our analyses indicate that the TPD’s bicycle enforcement did not produce a community benefit in terms of bicycle safety, bicycle theft, or crime generally but did burden individual bicyclists, particularly Black bicyclists in high…

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Justice Dept. review of Tampa Police Dept. to be released Tuesday

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A long awaited report from the Justice Department regarding the Tampa Police Dept.’s bicycle stops and citations policies will be released to the public on Tuesday. A press conference has been scheduled for Tuesday morning at the offices of the U.S. Attorney’s office of the Middle District of Florida in Tampa. Scheduled to appear will be U.S. Attorney Lee Bentley III, Ronald Davis from the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Tampa Police…

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Tampa City Council wants to know what’s the hold up with DOJ investigation of TPD?

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It was nearly a year ago when the Tampa Bay Times reported on the Tampa Police Department’s policies of targeting poor, black neighborhoods for bicycle violations. It caused a sensation in the progressive parts of the city, and ultimately led Mayor Bob Buckhorn and then Police Chief Jane Castor to contact the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) of the Department of Justice to perform an independent review of the TPD’s bike enforcement policy. That report was supposedly due at the end…

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Bob Buckhorn slams Legislature for pushing Open Carry legislation

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Wading into the current debate in Tallahassee, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is slamming state lawmakers who are advocating that Florida allow nearly 1.5 million Floridians with concealed carry permits to openly carry their firearms, rather than having to keep them hidden. “This bill is totally unnecessary,” Buckhorn declared at a news conference held at Tampa Police headquarters, where he was joined by Police Chief Eric Ward, Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober and the Florida League of Women Voters Patricia…

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