A Story and a Thank You!

I was very privileged to attend the TPD District III Workshop. The purpose was to introduce the citizens of District III to their officers and to learn "how things worked" and how to help TPD to help the neighbors. Chief Hogue , Assistant Chief Castor and Major Guidara were in attendance along with SAC, and QUAD officers, and many street level officers. It was a good workshop and even I who have been in many meetings with TPD learned some new things.

I was very disappointed in the turn out. I have listened to many who say they think TPD isn’t as accessible as they would like, who don’t understand whom to call about what, but when the opportunity is given to meet the officers who serve us, to put a face with the name and open a relationship, many did not show up! What a shame.

However, like I said, I learned some new things and enjoyed hearing what the various officers had to say.

Then I drove home. As I turned onto Shadowlawn from Nebraska, I looked down my street and saw several red and blue lights blinking and a congestion of cars. A rare event on Shadowlawn
I drove close to the gathering and called my neighbor to make sure she was ok, as it was in front of her house. Then I parked and got out of my car and walked to her house. There were two patrol cars, and three undercover cars surrounding one citizen car. There was one man in handcuffs. I stood with my neighbor on her porch and watched and in a few minutes one of the officer’s came over to tell us what happened.

The officer in the unmarked car had made a drug buy from the man in handcuffs, at the Touchdown convenience store on the corner of 15th and Hillsborough. I loved hearing that. When we first started going on vehicle patrol four years ago, that store had been a Farm Store and they were ALWAYS selling drugs in that parking lot, as well as up and down the street. It has been a much more invisible problem the last year. The kind of problem you do not see as you pass by in your car but you suspect is still there. So as I looked at this collection of Tampa’s finest, having just come from the workshop, I felt that in spite of all the blinking lights and the intrusion on our street things are pretty good in the heights. Thanks in part to TPD.

Thank you Major Guidara and staff. Thank you very much!