St. Petersburg Police Reach Out on National Night Out

A band made music, teens played beach volleyball, and small children got to sit on a motorcycle.

These were the scenes in North Shore Park Tuesday night for National Night Out, whose purpose is to raise community as much as it is to share crime-prevention tools.

The spectacular beauty of the downtown shorefront is not exactly Ground Zero for fighting dastardly crime. But the annual event’s laid-back setting underscored its purpose: to bring like-minded people together with the common goal of keeping neighborhoods safe.

National Night Out marked its 28th year Tuesday. It is a night where Americans are urged to turn on their porch lights and take the old-fashioned step of talking to their neighbors and sharing an interest about what goes in their communities.

It’s a unique but effective way to organize groups to fight neighborhood crime.

St. Petersburg Police also see the event has a public relations tool. Police made stops at North Shore Park and similar events around the city, from motorcycle cops to the Police Chief. Other sites were Westminster Shores/Bahama Shores, Bartlett Park, Kenwood and Holiday Park.

The gathering at North Shore Park earned dividends almost immediately for St. Petersburg Police Maj. Dede Carron.

She met a citizen who happened to have a tip about a burglary.
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St. Pete Detective Indicted by Grand Jury

A grand jury with the U.S. District Court in Tampa issued a seven-count indictment on Tuesday charging a St. Petersburg police detective with public corruption.

The first six counts charge Anthony F. with a wire fraud scheme to deprive the public of honest services. The seventh count charges Anthony with attempted extortion.

Anthony, 39, was arrested in June at the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorneys Office on federal charges of wire fraud and interference with commerce by threats. He was released by a federal judge on a $25,000 signature bond.

St. Petersburg police Chief Chuck Harmon has put Anthony on leave without pay, a routine move whenever an officer is charged with a crime.
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