Since the protests that took place in Tampa last summer following the death of George Floyd have abated, activists have centered their focus on trying to beef up the independence of the city’s police Citizen’s Review Board (CRB).


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Mayor Jane Castor has worked with the Tampa Police Dept.’s union, the ACLU and other parties on a revision of its original iteration for months, though it continues to fall short of what some activists (and council members) have called for.

While the Castor administration is poised to bring those latest proposed to the city council next month, a public discussion was held in Ybor City today measuring the mood of the activist community, just days after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all three charges against him in the death of Floyd.

It wasn’t the most balanced conversation, however.

Danny Alvarez, the spokesman for the Tampa Police Benevolent Association (PBA), did not appear after he was initially listed as among the speakers at the event, hosted by the Tampa Tiger Bay Club.

“I think we have a long way to go, but I’m feeling hopeful, because people are not losing momentum,” said activist Bernice Lauredan, in looking back on the protests from the summer of 2020.”They’re not being disappointed. They’re not being deterred. Folks are still as invested as they were last year when they were marching, and I think that says something powerful.”

Lauredan led some of those marches in Tampa last year, including one in front of City Hall where she shunned Castor directly after the mayor left her office and came down to join the protest.

Mayor Castor’s Community Task Force on Policing, a group formed by the mayor last summer in an attempt to change the TPD by improving relations with the public and to police training, met publicly this week to talk about some of its 17 recommendations that came out of those discussions.

Yvette Lewis, the head of the Hillsborough County NAACP Chapter, was dismissive of the task force on Friday, labeling it a “façade” and saying that “we need to see aggressive change.” She also said that several of her recommendations were ignored, such as “better” community policing and more implicit bias training.

When it comes to the CRB, Stanley Gray with the Urban League of Hillsborough County could have been describing the activists’ reaction to the body when it was originally formed by former Mayor Bob Buckhorn in 2015 when he said that “perception is reality.”

“If it’s perceived that it’s not a true organization as opposed to a rubber stamp organization, I think that you’re not going to have community buy-in or involvement,” he told Spectrum Bay News 9 before the formal meeting began.

Negotiations between the mayor and the city council about a stronger CRB have focused on some of the same issues that took place in 2015: the activists want the board to have subpoena power to call witnesses, while the council wants to have the power to select more members of the board than the mayor.

When it comes to subpoena power, the issue may have to be resolved by going to the public via a Charter Review Amendment, said Councilman Joe Citro.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing it, but we have to go through the Charter,” he said.

Citro also spoke up for the TPD when he said that he believes that there are “a lot of police officers that are going to take the opportunity to retire” and others who may be having second thought about getting into law enforcement because of the current tensions in the country over policing following the Floyd incident.

“You’ve got to admit that it’s really tough to be a police officer these days,” he said, adding that the TPD is dedicated towards the citizenry.

“I will stand behind Tampa Police Department one hundred percent as a whole,” Citro said. “But the first officer who steps out of line? That’s a different story.”