Officer investigated for speaking his mind on St. Pete crime

[Feuer Frei!]

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida - A veteran officer with a clean record is being investigated by the St. Petersburg Police Department (SPPD) after he warned the father of a robbery victim about a dangerous part of town.
Officer Thad "Stu" Crisco, who was recently in headlines for honoring his fallen partner David Crawford, allegedly warned St. Petersburg father Bob Esposito about letting his 16-year-old daughter hang around the Northshore Pool at night. Esposito's daughter was one of five teens robbed by a group of armed men there about 10:30 p.m. on a recent weeknight.
That comment, made by Crisco the night of the robbery, was inadvertently relayed to his superior when Esposito was following up with SPPD. The department then launched an investigation into "disparaging comments against the city."
"I'm shocked," Esposito said. "His job is to serve and protect, and as far as I'm concerned, he gave me information. I think he did his job. I think he did it very well."
Esposito said Crisco cited the city's violent crime stats - the worst in the state. He faces a possible suspension, even if his comments were true, although his exemplary record with SPPD could help him avoid serious discipline.


Mayor Bill Foster acknowledged the incident and said he holds SPPD to the highest standard.
"I always want to know my officers are representing this city in a very positive light," Foster said.
While St. Petersburg's violent crime stats are high (more than 1% of residents will be a victim in any given year), the numbers have dropped every year since 2007.
"(SPPD) is performing at a very high level," Foster said. "Do I tout statistics when I'm out in the public? No, because we have too many victims."
Through the first five months of 2011, the city has seen a drop in every single crime stat except murder. Earlier this month, following a secret summit on crime, Chief Chuck Harmon admitted his biggest concern was youths with guns.
UPDATE 7/1/11: Foster says Crisco will not be disciplined and SPPD was only looking into the incident because it was brought to their attention. A statement from SPPD said, "although no action has been taken at this time, Officer Crisco faces - at the most - a Memorandum of Counseling (not a "suspension"), which is considered an informal, instructional document...that would caution him against making comments in the future that are either factually incorrect or could otherwise be misunderstood by the general public."


SOURCE

[magic452]

Small wonder that crime is high if that is the attitude of the management.
We gotta look good who cares if people are getting robbed or killed.

Magic

[Feuer Frei!]

I can see both sides of the coin here.
1) The cop was attempting to do his job and was thinking outside the box with his advice to the father.
Good on him. Some may not have done that. He's probably a father as well.
2) From a job point of view, he is representing the city and as such has to be careful about what he says or thinks about the city he works for.
Or at the very least be careful about how words can be construed wrongly or taken out of context.
Both parties are correct in what they did.

[yubba]

Fuer do you live here in Florida.???? I live just south of the space center, if you watch the news of central florida it is a combat zone, fact more americans die in central florida per day than any american war zone.

[Platapus]

It is just an investigation. How about we wait to see what the results are first?

[Feuer Frei!]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

UPDATE 7/1/11: Foster says Crisco will not be disciplined and SPPD was only looking into the incident because it was brought to their attention. A statement from SPPD said, "although no action has been taken at this time, Officer Crisco faces - at the most - a Memorandum of Counseling (not a "suspension"), which is considered an informal, instructional document...that would caution him against making comments in the future that are either factually incorrect or could otherwise be misunderstood by the general public."

See op for source

Originally Posted by Platapus

It is just an investigation. How about we wait to see what the results are first?

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by yubba

Fuer do you live here in Florida.???? I live just south of the space center, if you watch the news of central florida it is a combat zone, fact more americans die in central florida per day than any american war zone.

That is funny because I live in Central Florida and I agree that certain areas are high crime but I hardly consider most of Central Florida to be a combat zone.I also have many good friends in law enforcement and emergency services and they don't jive with your statement either.I bet the area being spoken about in that article is around Ybor City (not sure dont live near Tampa/St.Petersburg) which has a higher than average crime rate.I have family members out that way though and they dont seem to be overly concerned about any "combat zone" and no one else will either if they stay away form any city in the worlds "wrong side of the tracks".

As a whole if you look at the FBI stats crime has gone down across the nation over the years despite an increase in population.The main reason parts of Florida have a higher rate is because of increased population(and LE needing to keep up with that) and because FL is a major drug trafficking state but still in FL the crime rate has been dropping over time.Also more and more people are moving south so the crime rate will also get higher down south but as populations increase so does the amount of LE it just takes a little longer.But to call Central Florida a combat zone is a rather massive over statement have you seen film of Iraq,Afghanistan,Vietnam or the drug cartels in Mexico? that is a combat zone Central Florida in nowhere near that. If you look at the FBIs data FL is rate is not the lowest but several sates such as Georgia have a higher percentage per population than FL.

States with a higher per 100,000 people violent crime rate than Florida:
Maine,Indiana,Wisconsin,Iowa,Kansas,Nebraska,North Dakota,Georgia,South Carolina,Alabama,Kentucky,Montana,New Mexico,Utah.

see for yourself:http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_04.html
FBI stats only reported crime but the ones that go unreported would only amount to much less than 1% more like 0.01% if even that.
I have a conceal carry permit by the way.Just saying this to disprove the gun owner being paranoid about violent crime stereotype.


Also local news media is all about getting viewers(if it bleeds it leads) so all they report is the bad news anyway.