The Tampa Police Department is the local law enforcement agency for the city of Tampa, Florida. Headquartered at Franklin Street in downtown Tampa, it employs over a thousand sworn officers and more than three hundred and fifty civilian and support staff personnel. According to their website here, the mission statement of the TPD is ” to Reduce Crime and Enhance the Quality of Life Through a Cooperative Partnership with all Citizens.”
The TPD is organized into four main sections overseen by the Chief of Police. They are the Criminal Investigations Division, the Patrol Services Division, the Special Operations Division, and the Administration Division. The Criminal Investigations Division is made up of the Major Crimes Bureau, the Strategic Investigations Bureau, and the Communications Bureau. The Major Crimes Bureau is responsible for investigating Homicides, Sex Crimes, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Hit and Runs and also performs forensic investigations, the apprehension of fugitives, and the administration of the department’s grant funds. The Strategic Investigations Bureau is responsible for narcotics investigations and enforcement, gang investigations and enforcement, undercover operations, and firearm investigations. The Communications Bureau handles the reception and recording of calls made to police services, as well as dispatching officers and services as needed. Patrol Services fields uniformed officers to respond to calls, perform preventative patrol functions, and apprehend and arrest criminals, as well as utilizing plains clothes officers in the District Latent Investigations unit to perform latent investigations of property crimes and assaults. Special Operations is a conglomeration of specialized units that handle such tasks as traffic enforcement, street level narcotics investigations, special event planning, crowd control, and search and recovery operations. Administration handles such things as personnel, training, and identification and records.
Geographically, the Tampa Police Department divides the city of Tampa, Florida, into three main districts. District One maintains twelve uniformed squads and covers the Davis Islands, the west side, and Tampa’s peninsula. District Two maintains fourteen uniformed squads and covers northern Tampa, including Busch Gardens, as well as the area commonly referred to as “New Tampa”, comprised of the Tampa Plains and the Hunters Green area. District Three maintains twelve uniformed squads and covers Downtown Tampa, the Port of Tampa, East Tampa, and the Ybor City Area.
The city of Tampa, Florida, has an estimated population of 305,758 residents and experiences an average of 12,712 crimes per annum. Violent crimes make up around 17 percent of these crimes, with murders at 23 (0.07 per 1000 residents), rapes at 47 (0.13 per 1000 residents), robberies at 574 (1.64 per 1000 residents), and assaults at 1,540 (.39 per 1000 residents) for a total of 2,184 violent crimes per annum (6.23 per 1000 residents). Property crimes make up the other 83 percent of these crimes, with burglaries at 2,535 (7.23 per 1000 residents), thefts at 7,354 (20.97 per 1000 residents), and motor vehicle thefts at 639 (1.82 per 1000 residents) for a total of 10,528 property crimes per annum (30.02 per 1000 residents).
The TPD offers traffic accident reports that were filed more than 60 days ago online here. Reports older than January 1st, 2007, are held and maintained elsewhere and can be obtained by calling the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles at (850) 617-3416. Reports newer than 60 days must be requested in person at 411 North Franklin Street.
You can look at TPD arrest records on the department’s website, which gives details like the person’s name, age, and charges. The website also has a search function that lets people look for specific people or sort the results by type of charge.
Arrest records may be obtained by visiting here. There, you may search by booking number or entering information into fields for the name (last, first), race, booking date, sex, release date, and date of birth. This search allows for both searching past arrest records and limiting the search to current inmates of the city jail system only.
A record of current warrants is maintained and can be searched. There, warrants can be searched for by number or by entering the relevant information into provided fields for the name (last, first), race, sex, and date of birth.
Building Bridges: How the Tampa Police Department reaches out to youth and seniors in the community.
The Tampa Police Department (TPD) is a key part of keeping the people of Tampa safe. But the department’s job isn’t just to ensure the law is followed. The TPD also tries to build ties with the community, especially with young people and older people.
Youth seminars are one of the main ways they try to connect with young people. These seminars aim to teach young people about things like how to stay away from drugs, how to stay safe on the internet, and what the police do in the community. Most of the time, the seminars are held in schools and community centers, and TPD officers lead them. These seminars aim to give young people helpful information and resources while also building trust and good relationships with the TPD.
The Tampa Police Department runs the Senior Outreach program for older people. The program aims to teach older people how to stay safe and avoid becoming victims of crime by giving them information and resources. Officers from the TPD go to senior centers and assist living facilities by giving talks on topics like personal safety, preventing fraud, and being ready for an emergency. The program also gives seniors a direct line to the TPD to report anything suspicious or ask for help.
The police also try to hire diverse officers who represent the people they serve. The TPD tries to reach out to underrepresented populations and hire officers who reflect the community’s diversity as a whole. The TPD thinks that having a diverse group of officers will help them get along better with the public, making the community safer.