Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 9-24-21

Feature
Tampa Police Department’s Crime Free Housing Program Gets Tweaked After Controversy
BY MONIQUE STAMPS Sentinel Staff Writer
A recent article in the Tampa Bay Times and re- ports by other media outlets have once again put a spotlight on an 8-year program the Tampa Police Department participated in called the Crime Free Multi-Housing Program (CFMHP), and the then police chief and now Tampa Mayor, Jane Castor.
The Crime Free Multi- Housing Program was devel- oped in 1992 by the Meza, Arizona Police Department and is used in over 2,000 cities in 48 states in the U. S. and in- ternationally with the inten- tion to assist in reducing crime, drugs, and gangs on apartment properties.
According to the reports, property administrators and owners of about 100 com- plexes in Tampa enrolled their properties in the program. Many of the complexes house mainly Black and Hispanic people.
One of the hot points of TPD’s implementation is the official notices sent to property owners when their tenants are arrested or stopped by officers on misdemeanor offenses and off the complexes property.
The demographics pro- vided by TPD showed that the majority of those named in these letters to property own- ers were Black. The informa- tion was kept in a police database that was last updated
MAYOR JANE CASTOR
in 2018.
After the firestorm on
Wednesday, Mayor Castor met with Black elected offi- cials, City Council Chairman and retired police officer, Or- lando Gudes, and State Rep. Dianne Hart on Friday to discuss the program and its racial reality.
After the meeting, it was announced that several changes would be made to im- prove TPD’s role in what could lead to inappropriate evic- tions.
The meeting on Friday was to discuss ways to better pro- tect tenants from unfair evic- tions.
The changes will be to:
• Specifically identified and limited the types of crimi- nal offenses that are reported to only include certain serious drug and violent felonies.
• TPD will add an addi- tional level of oversight by re- quiring a Captain's sign-off for
ORLANDO GUDES ...City Council Chair
all Arrest Notices issued.
• Arrest Notices are only sent when the crime occurs on the property of the complex
registered for the program.
The City’s position was re- leased stating, ‘the program is a voluntary partnership be- tween multifamily property owners, tenants, and officers to reduce crime. Components include education, improved landscaping, and design, and facilitating access to public records regarding criminal ac- tivity on the premises.
According to the Mayor’s office, the program has helped significantly reduce crime rates in complexes serving tens of thousands of Tampa resi- dents.
According to reports, ap- proximately 300 people in the database were found to no longer live on the participating properties.
The Castor administra-
STATE REPRESENATIVE DIANNE HART
tion made several changes to the program in 2019 including making clear that the Tampa Police Department is not in- volved in screening or eviction decisions.
"No Tampa resident should have to live where they fear to let their kids play outside, and this voluntary program has improved the safety and qual- ity of life for tens of thousands of people. I really appreciate the leadership and collabora- tion from Chairman Gudes and Rep. Hart to help us im- prove and continue this pro- gram that is a benefit to our entire community," Mayor Castor said.
"Yesterday, Mayor Cas- tor, State Representative Di- anne Hart, and I met to discuss how we can meet the needs of our residents, while working to keep each resident safe. Every person deserves to have equitable, affordable housing that is safe, and we are
working to ensure that," said Chairman Gudes.
He continued, "Revising this program was paramount and I'm glad that we were able to make the necessary adjust- ments so that we are not arbi- trarily compounding on the affordable housing crisis we currently have in this City.”
“This is a conversation that we will need to continue to have and a concern that my of- fice will continue to monitor. We have to balance correctly on this tightrope because it's a fine line between protecting residents and overreaching too far to where we are burdening the already crisis in this City."
“Mayor Castor, Chair- man Gudes, and I share a commitment that all residents deserve access to decent, af- fordable and safe homes," Rep. Hart said. "I am glad we could come together to make some changes to this program as its former state had serious consequences that disrupt the lives of good people.”
Originally, police pledged to create a database of “docu- mented violent offenders, gang members or career criminals involved in your community.” The intention was to alert landlords to tenants arrested for armed robbery and drug dealing.
But the program also swept up more than 100 people who were arrested for misde- meanors — and dozens more whose charges were later dropped.
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