Police support and key issues surrounding Warren’s impeachment in Hillsborough DA race

TAMPA — Suzy Lopez squinted as she stood in the sunlight with Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister on an isolated stretch of U.S. 301 in Thonotosassa. A sheriff’s deputy here was killed in a crash with a semi-trailer. No crime had been committed. The accident was a tragic accident. But Lopez was there, hands folded, eyes looking down.

“It seems like no matter what the situation is, we can always count on our state attorney, Suzy Lopez, to be there for us,” the sheriff told TV news reporters.

Almost simultaneously, Andrew Warren posted on social media platform X. He included screenshots of the legal opinion, which ruled that Gov. Ron DeSantis was wrong to remove him from his elected post as the district’s attorney general.

“The court found that I did my job well and that his political demonstration violated state and federal laws,” Warren wrote.

That mid-September morning epitomizes the dynamics of one of this year’s most hotly contested local races.

Law enforcement leadership repeatedly He highlights his close ties to Lopez, boosting Lopez’s public profile in press conferences and public statements. Meanwhile, Warren and her supporters say Lopez doesn’t belong in a job she doesn’t deserve and that it should rightfully be hers.

Warren’s politics irritated law enforcement

When Warren ran for office in Hillsborough County in 2016, she said she wanted to get involved. A national conversation about criminal justice. He talked about reforming the system and how prosecutors think from their work. He spoke of cases “not as a person who needs to be judged, but as a problem that needs to be solved.”

“I felt like we had an opportunity to shape policy for a whole generation,” he said years later.

He stood out in the campaign trial resume while in office: Expanding the use of civil penalties for minor crimes. Taking guns away from people committing domestic violence. Supporting policies against the “criminalization of poverty,” such as helping people avoid criminal charges for driver’s licenses suspended due to unpaid fees. Creating a conviction review unit to identify and exonerate innocent people in prison.

These The achievements drew applause when discussed in public forums.

But Warren’s style It also inflamed opposition that led to his dismissal.

Brian Dugan, who served as Tampa’s police chief for most of Warren’s tenure, said local cops viewed Warren with suspicion. But halfway through Warren’s term, friction began to occur, he said. They disagreed on pricing decisions. The chief thought Warren was using the cases for political gain.

“He was always politicizing the issue and driving a wedge between the Black community in particular and the police department,” Dugan said.

one of many Turning points for Dugan It was the shooting of Jonas Joseph, a black man who Tampa police say fired a gun at them while trying to flee a traffic stop. This happened in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was also a time of growing public concern about police shootings of black men.

Dugan was disturbed that no one from Warren’s office showed up at the scene on the night of April 28, 2020, to observe the police investigation into the incident.

Warren’s recollection was that her office followed public health orders that recommended gathering in groups. He emphasized that he and other prosecutors went to the sites of other police shootings and conducted comprehensive investigations that were made public.

The relationship has become even more frayed The country witnessed protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police.

Dugan was especially angry when Warren announced this by holding a press conference with local black religious leaders. I will not press charges against a group of protesters A person arrested on charges of unlawful assembly.

Dugan said He was disturbed not by the decision itself, but by Warren drawing attention to it.

“He had gotten to the point where it was clear he didn’t care about anyone but himself,” Dugan said.

Warren said she has always approached her role as an “independent partner.” Despite the disagreements, his relationship with the cops “worked as it should.”

“My job wasn’t to make everyone happy,” he said. “It was about finding the truth and following the law, and that’s what we’ve always done.”

Chronister said he was also upset with Warren. He once called her a “partner” in criminal justice and even supported her re-election in 2020. But in early 2022, the sheriff expressed concerns about some of Warren’s policies in letters the two shared.

Worried about prosecutors being “woke,” Gov. Ron DeSantis had his staff investigate whether any Florida prosecutors were following the law, according to court testimony. They interviewed people all over the state, but not Warren or anyone in her office. When they spoke with Chronister, the sheriff gave him a list of cases he thought Warren should pursue.

One case that Chronister later made public involved a shooting suspect who the sheriff said Warren’s office declined to investigate due to the complexity of the case. Warren’s attorney later said this was due to the victim not being cooperative. Similar cases also involved defendants with violent criminal histories who had their charges dropped for various reasons, according to court records.

The Republican sheriff later sided with Dugan, a longtime Democrat, and other law enforcement leaders when DeSantis announced Warren’s dismissal. Then he spoke Private, long-standing frustrations cops have expressed with Warren.

However, the suspension decision was as follows: redirected by irrelevant At the time, DeSantis called out Warren’s comments about abortion. He also touched on policies Warren has enacted that encourage prosecutors to use discretion when pursuing low-level, nonviolent crimes, claiming they are “implicit policies” against enforcing the law.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle concluded that this was wrong. Hinkle, ruling on Warren’s lawsuit against the governor, found that all the evidence showed Warren was competent. He’s doing his job.

Historian he has since become one of Lopez’s most prominent supporters. Chronister at a fundraiser for him in September He criticized Warren’s claims that her policies reduce crime.

“I’m here to tell you, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reduced crime not because of him, but in spite of him,” Chronister said.

Warren said he worked “extremely well” with the sheriff. He blamed politics for the criticisms voiced by him and Dugan.

“Political knives came out when it was convenient for them to pull out their knives,” Warren said.

Lopez embraces cops but rejects ‘rubber stamp’

If Warren appears to have a troubled relationship with the cops, Lopez shares: A. a family-like bond.

In January, he stood next to Tampa police Chief Lee Bercaw near the scene where officers engaged in a gunfight with a murder suspect; He stated that his office would have the responsibility to review this use of force.

“The courage shown by our officers this afternoon was well demonstrated,” he said.

Current statistics show that an office gives more rights to cops.

Data from the Florida Administrator of State Courts shows that in the first 10 months after Lopez’s appointment (the most complete period for which statistics are available), his office saw a 23% increase in the number of felony charges filed compared to the previous 10 months. Warren’s tenure. During the same period, the number of serious crimes solved with a plea decreased by 17%. There were more convictions at trial, but there were also more acquittals.

His prosecution style won Lopez approval from local police unions they have long favored tough-on-crime stances.

At the same time The type of approach Warren says causes cases to languish as bad prosecutions clog the system.

“The relationship with law enforcement needs to be a symbiotic relationship, but not simultaneously,” Warren said in a recent interview with the Tampa Bay Times editorial board.

In his campaign against Lopez, he resurfaced Lopez’s statements in deposition in his lawsuit against the governor. He was asked whether, hypothetically, the sheriff would file criminal charges if people complained he was violating laws banning things like interracial marriage.

“I’m not going to tell him how to do his job, and he’s not going to tell me how to do mine,” Lopez said.

Under pressure from Warren’s attorney, Lopez eventually said it was “crazy” to file charges in such a scenario.

In an interview with the Times editorial board, Lopez denied “rubber-stamping” everything law enforcement brought to him.

“We have great relationships and communication,” he said. “But there is no rubber stamp. We really just hold each other accountable. “Communities are safer when law enforcement does not feel weakened.”

Police support for Warren may not matter

Since Warren’s suspension, Dugan and Chronister have publicly opposed her returning to office. Warren isn’t excluded from getting support from the cops.

Campaign finance records show Tampa Police Department deputy chief Calvin Johnson donated $500 to Warren. Johnson, a registered Democrat, said he could not comment on his support for Warren.

Rocky Ratliff, a retired Tampa police major, appeared in some of Warren’s campaign ads.

“The way it was done was wrong,” Ratliff said. “He was suspended without any justification. Even a federal judge said he shouldn’t have been suspended.”

Ratliff told the Times he supports other Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor. He said he liked Lopez and believed she was doing what she thought was right. But he believes Warren understands that “you can’t just stop crime.”

“The Hillsborough County community voted for him twice,” Ratliff said, referring to his election victories in 2016 and 2020. “Then you want Gov. DeSantis to remove him from office just because he can.”

An obvious question looms in the race: If Warren wins, will DeSantis suspend her again?

Governor did not give a clear answer. But when asked about it at a press conference in Pinellas Park in September, DeSantis urged people to talk to Chronister and others about “what it was like under the old regime, where criminals knew they could get away with crimes.”

“I can tell you that you need prosecutors who are guided by the law,” DeSantis said. “This will enforce the law without fear or favor. “This will not create a political agenda.”