St. Petersburg police announced they fired one of their officers, saying he improperly used a stun gun multiple times on a man wanted for failing to appear in court. They said the suspect was 'not physically resisting in a way that warranted being tasered.'
In the first days of St. Petersburg Police Department's workshops on community policing, officers were asked to “'Take off the badge, put that aside. You're a community member. What do you want to see an officer?'”
Three months after a St. Petersburg police officer shot a 17-year-old, the Pinellas County Use of Deadly Force Task Force determined the officer acted lawfully and properly. The teen’s family thinks the task force got it wrong.
This year, Santa once again had some help from officers at the St. Petersburg Police Department as they spent their morning at Walmart filling up their shopping carts for kids in the community.