{"id":144905,"date":"2026-02-05T16:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144905\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T16:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:47:13","slug":"st-pete-police-chief-answers-questions-about-ice-enforcement-safety-in-community-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/144905\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete police chief answers questions about ICE enforcement, safety in community forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"St. <\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Immigration enforcement was a concern among some residents at a community policing forum Wednesday night in St. Petersburg<\/a>, as the police chief answered many questions about warrants and violence seen in other cities.<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

The violence happening in Minneapolis with Immigration<\/a> and Customs Enforcement is raising concerns farther south in St. Petersburg.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roughly 30 residents attended a community policing forum with St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway on Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church\u2019s Beach Drive forum event.<\/p>\n

One woman who attended the meeting said she volunteers at the food pantry at the St. Petersburg free clinic, and the people they serve are increasingly concerned that ICE is going to come through their doors.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Chief Holloway explained to the crowd what St. Pete officers can and can\u2019t do, using an example.<\/p>\n

READ: St. Petersburg dedicates new firefighter’s memorial along downtown waterfront<\/a><\/p>\n

“We pull Rick over for a suspended license. We run Rick\u2019s name, and it has an ICE hold on him. Our job then is to contact ICE and have ICE come out and serve the administrative warrant because we can\u2019t serve it. We\u2019re not deputized. Under the 287g some officers will be deputized, and they can serve that warrant,” said Holloway.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

Chief Holloway said the city signed a 287g agreement like everywhere else in Florida, but he said he has not seen ICE activity in St. Pete.<\/p>\n

“Our job is to serve warrants and that\u2019s all we do. And we\u2019re not going to go down the street and say \u2018can I see your identification\u2019? Our thing is it has to be a lawful stop or an investigation,” said Holloway.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Courtesy: St. Petersburg Police Department <\/p>\n

Before the talk turned to immigration enforcement, Chief Holloway shared how calls are going with the community assistance and life liaison program or CALL program.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve gotten calls from other agencies, agencies outside the country asking us how it works because it came about when Mr. George Floyd was killed,” said Holloway. “The community got together and they were right. We were responding to calls that didn\u2019t need law enforcement.”<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Road safety was also among the concerns for residents like Beth and Rick Corwin.<\/p>\n

“There ought to be more enforcement, I guess, of traffic laws, people driving the wrong way on the major highways and not putting their blinkers on,” said Beth Corwin, a St. Petersburg resident of 20 years. “We had a death coming out of Eckerd coming into our complex. And we had been petitioning for years and years to get a stoplight where the death happened. We finally have a stop light there.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The conversation ranged from the budget to drugs and even body cameras.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ: Tampa, St. Pete homicides, other crimes drop to lowest level in 50+ years \u2014 here\u2019s what helped<\/a><\/p>\n

“Everybody lives in different neighborhoods, and they perceive crime differently. So, I\u2019m going to come to your neighborhood. What do you perceive and crime and what can we do to work together to reduce that fear of crime in your community,” said Holloway.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Chief Holloway said he attends community forums every month in different neighborhoods. He said it\u2019s a way for him to hear directly from residents about how St. Pete police can better serve them.<\/p>\n

The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX13\u2019s Briona Arradondo during a community forum with the Saint Petersburg Police Department.<\/p>\n

Pinellas County<\/a>St. Petersburg<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Immigration enforcement was a concern among some residents at a community policing forum Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[630,47,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-144905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pinellas","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-headlines","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news","18":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}