Tampa: Community demands no new police headquarters

Tampa, FL – Tampa community members rallied May 29 to demand no new Tampa Police Department (TPD) headquarters. The rally was called by the Tampa Bay Community Action Committee (TBCAC) and was held at the proposed site for the new police headquarters. TBCAC and Tampa community members also demanded that the $100 million-plus earmarked for the project be used instead on social services for East Tampa residents.

The city of Tampa proposed the plan to move the police headquarters in early March of this year. The estimated cost of the project is over $100 million, and the city has already committed almost $65 million. Additionally, the site of the new headquarters would be in the heart of East Tampa, a predominantly Black and working-class neighborhood in Tampa.

“The city’s plan to move the headquarters to East Tampa doesn’t take the needs of the people into account. They didn’t ask Tampa community members what they thought about it,” said David Jones, an organizer with TBCAC. “They put it there without the go-ahead from the community that they’re putting it in. The $100 million put towards this headquarters should be being put towards services that help the community services that better the East Tampa community.”

This rally marked the first event in TBCAC’s campaign to stop the building of TPD’s new headquarters and the group plans to continue the fight through more rallies, mobilizing people to attend city council meetings and call-ins to the Tampa city council.