Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times.
A police initiative in Tampa, Florida, is responsible for the evictions of hundreds of families. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Tampa Police Department initiative notifies the landlords of the people they arrest.
The police initiative, Crime-Free Multi-Housing, began in 2013 to protect landlords from gang activity on properties. It has since been the catalyst for evicting more than 100 families without cause. Many were evicted despite charges being dropped, while others were evicted over misdemeanor crimes.
One family was evicted after their teenager was caught stealing change from cars totaling $4.44. He was sent to a juvenile detention center, and the family was evicted because Tampa police had notified their landlord at their public housing apartment complex.
Two people were reported driving with suspended licenses, and other families lost their homes for arrested relatives who did not even live with them. One man who worked as a truck driver was evicted with his 2-year-old daughter after his brother, who no longer lived in the apartment, was arrested for a small amount of marijuana.
Racism was also a factor in the police initiative. At least 90 percent of the people flagged for the notification initiative were Black, even though only 54 percent of people arrested in all of Tampa since the program began were Black.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor launched the police initiative when she was the chief of police and claims that one complex had a 39 percent drop in crime since 2013. She also claimed that police had no say in who the landlords evicted.
“In some of the lower-income complexes, they were just like the O.K. Corral,” she said. “People were hostages in their apartments and couldn’t let their kids out to play…I don’t think that the landlords are evicting somebody based on a notice of arrest.”
The Tampa Police Department has a history of targeting Black people. The department was exposed in 2015 for only giving tickets to Black bicyclists and was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. The landlords of several of the ticketed bicyclists were notified under the initiative.