St. Pete gun bounty program yields mixed results (F for Florida, F for Fail)

The Corrections Connection ^ | April 9, 2013 | Stephen Thompson

[2ndDivisionVet]

ST. PETERSBURG - A six-week gun bounty program announced in the wake of the Newton school shooting yielded mixed results, police said today.

Police recovered 120 firearms and more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition, while making 34 arrests and seizing nearly $74,000.

But investigators received only one tip through Crime Stoppers that led to an arrest and the seizure of a handgun, St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon said.

Under the program, announced in January, anyone who provided information leading to the confiscation of an assault rifle and an arrest would get $1,500 through the Crime Stoppers program. Information leading to a handgun would net $1,000.

“It didn’t happen,” Harmon said following a press conference attended by Mayor Bill Foster, federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and representatives from the state Department of Corrections.

What did work was a new partnership between probation officers and police. Lists were drawn up of drug offenders on probation and of offenders with violent criminal histories on probation, said police Maj. Mike Kovacsev. Then visits were made to their homes.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Can you make heads or tails of this story?

[grobdriver]

Sounds like 34 people who should not have had firearms in their possession as a condition of probation, did.

And quite a few rounds of ammo for those firearms.

[aimhigh]

Good news is that they got some bad guns. Bad news is that it makes American into spies. In Communist Russia, no one could trust anyone, because they were trained as a society to turn in their neighbors.

[askrenr]

"Bad news is that it makes American into spies."

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The article made it sound like Americans were not turned into spies and therefore the program produced – quote “mixed results”..

[Kenny Bunk]

St. Pete lost 4 officers in one year. Reason: Pussificated Police Chief
And a "Community Affairs" Officer who was probably a blood relative of Trayvon Martin. Both have since been replaced.

However beautiful cocaine-central St. Pete is not a place to be caught without PPE in many neighborhoods. Think of it as Malibu crossed with Lagos, Nigeria. Until they get a "Frank Rizzo" type police chief who is not afraid to put teeth in the street in gang sweeps, the natives will run wild all too frequently. Been worse since The Hawaiian finagled the top Federal job.

If you're heeled, feel free to visit.