Page 8 - DemoFlorida Sentinel 3-5-21

Feature
Another Tampa Officer Fired Over Use Of Racial Slurs
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On Tuesday, a veteran Tampa Police officer was fired for the use of racial slurs. The incident took place last year.
According to a statement released by the Tampa Po- lice Department, “on No- vember 13, 2020, White was on a phone call when his body-worn camera captured him referencing a group of people as "ghetto N******".
“While under investiga- tion, White informed his supervisor that there was another incident, on November 30, 2020, where he used the "N" word while making an arrest. The body-worn camera captured White using the derogatory language twice while effecting an arrest for tres- passing.
"Derogatory statements made by police officers jeop- ardize the trust that our department works to estab- lish with our community," Chief Brian Dugan said.
"Tampa Police officers are held to a higher standard and incidents like this negatively impact the entire law enforcement profes- sion."
Officer White is being represented by Attorney Danny Alvarez, of the
OFFICER DELVIN WHITE
Tampa Police Benevolent Association.
Attorney Alvarez, re- leased the following state- ment, “We stand with the City of Tampa and the Tampa Police Department in their efforts to stamp out racism in every form and condemn any and all derogatory statements in or out of uniform.
“The facts in the Delvin White matter do not reflect an act of any intent equal to the punishment he received for his alleged transgression. Officer White is a beloved and trusted member of the East Tampa community that he was raised in and that he protected every day. Despite his misstep, throughout the investigation, private citi- zens and other individuals associated with his school
contacted the Chief of Police lending their support and reflecting their admiration for his character and contri- butions.
“The PBA will file a for- mal grievance on Officer White’s behalf with the hope and expectation of get- ting this valued officer back to work.”
When asked who filed the complaints against Offi- cer White, Chief Dugan said, “no complaints were filed in either case.”
Chief Dugan said the department conducts ran- dom audits of the body cam- eras worn by the officers. While auditing Officer White’s camera, the com- ments he made to his wife were heard. Chief Dugan also said the camera was on by mistake.
Once Officer White was confronted, he voluntar- ily told them about the inci- dent with the student.
Chief Dugan said, the punishment ranges from a minimum of a 15-day sus- pension up to being termi- nated.
“It was not an easy deci- sion, but there were two sep- arate incidents and he works with students,” Chief Dugan said.
Chief Dugan said the cameras are activated in sev- eral ways: when an officer pulls his taser, when he pulls his gun, and when he turns on the lights in his police ve- hicle. There is also a button where the officer can manu- ally activate the body cam- era.
Stillbirth Prevention Campaign Launches In Florida During Pandemic
The Florida Department of Health is partnering with Count the Kicks, an evidence-based stillbirth prevention public health campaign, to educate and empower pregnant women in Florida about the importance of tracking fetal movement in the third trimester of pregnancy. One out of every 147 pregnan- cies in Florida end in stillbirth, according to Florida vital statis- tics. Count the Kicks was launched in April 2020, near the onset of the COVID-19 Pan- demic.
Count the Kicks teaches the method for, and importance of, tracking fetal movement during the third trimester of preg- nancy. Research shows the ben- efits of expectant moms tracking their baby’s move- ments daily and learning how long it normally takes their baby to get to 10 movements. After a few days, moms will begin to see a pattern, a normal amount of time it takes their baby to get to 10 movements.
If their baby’s “normal" changes during the third trimester, this could be a sign of potential problems and is an in- dication that the expectant mom should call her healthcare provider.
During the COVID-19 pan- demic, expectant moms have re- ported changes to their regularly scheduled prenatal visits and an increase in tele- health visits. Now is an espe- cially important time for expectant women to track their baby’s movements every day in the third trimester. By doing so,
expectant moms will have the peace of mind to know when things are OK and when things have changed.
“This campaign saved my son, Ryan,” said Florida Count the Kicks Ambassador and Bradenton mom Sarah Siri- anni. “Count the Kicks is so im- portant, my doctor says Ryan wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t been paying attention to his movements and spoke up when I noticed a change.”
Thanks to the partnership with the Florida Department of Health, maternal health providers, birthing hospitals, social services agencies, child- birth educators and other providers in Florida can order FREE Count the Kicks educa- tional materials (available at www.countthekicks.org) to help them have the kick counting conversation with expectant Florida parents. Since the launch of the campaign last year, more than 313,000 educa- tional pieces have been distrib- uted throughout the state.
According to the Florida De- partment of Health, Division of Public Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, in 2019, approxi- mately 1,515 babies were born still in Florida. In Iowa, where Count the Kicks began, the state’s stillbirth rate dropped by nearly 32 percent in the first 10 years of the campaign (2008- 2018). The Florida Department of Health is hoping to bring the same success that Iowa has seen to Florida, which would save more than 500 babies in the state each year.
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