TAMPA, Florida — Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan says his department is not deliberately seeking out black men riding bicycles to hand out citations or warnings.

  • Police released statistics last month
  • Residents, city council members questioned disparity
  • Dugan: "Just because there's a disparity in numbers doesn't mean there's a bias." 

"We’re not targeting black males or black people for anything," Dugan said.  "What we do is we go and look at the crime trends for each specific neighborhood."

Dugan made those comments before city council members Thursday morning in response to criticism from residents and council members. That criticism came after his department released numbers last month indicating the number of bicycle stops, citations and warnings issued in the city. 

The data showed a discrepancy regarding how many white Tampa bike riders are ticketed compared to African-American bike riders.  According to Tampa Police, 3,298 bicyclists were stopped in Tampa this year alone. Of those stopped, 1,923 were black men while 771 were white men. 

"How do you reach that number?" asked Council Chair Frank Reddick, in reference to the 1,923 stops. "Are you going into the black communities and targeting these African-Americans on bicycles?"

"Just because there’s a disparity in numbers doesn’t mean that there’s a bias," Dugan replied. 

As an example, Dugan said that white males made up the majority of DUI arrests in Tampa and the number of citations along Bayshore Boulevard.  He said he is willing to give out more warnings instead of citations to bicycle riders moving forward.