{"id":266737,"date":"2026-05-11T15:53:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T15:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/266737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T15:53:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T15:53:49","slug":"tampa-police-officer-accused-of-driving-with-bac-twice-legal-limit-police-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/266737\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa police officer accused of driving with BAC twice legal limit: police chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 The Tampa Police Department said one of its probationary officers was arrested, and subsequently fired, after they said he got behind the wheel with a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/college-student-way-home-mother-140031704.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:College student on the way home for Mother\u2019s Day suffers \u2018incapacitating\u2019 injuries after tire blows off: FHP;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;College student on the way home for Mother\u2019s Day suffers \u2018incapacitating\u2019 injuries after tire blows off&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> College student on the way home for Mother\u2019s Day suffers \u2018incapacitating\u2019 injuries after tire blows off: FHP <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TPD said the incident occurred late Saturday night, involving off-duty officer Kevin Casazza. He was arrested after a traffic stop on I-275 near MLK Jr. Boulevard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The officer was still on probation, having been hired in 2025 and still working through training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/bradenton-mother-arrested-4-old-141230335.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Bradenton mother arrested after 4-year-old drowns at pool party, police say;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Bradenton mother arrested after 4-year-old drowns at pool party, police say&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Bradenton mother arrested after 4-year-old drowns at pool party, police say <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Records from the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office indicated Casazza was arrested just after midnight and released on bond Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis incident is deeply disappointing,\u201d Chief Lee Bercaw said. \u201cEvery employee, on or off duty, is expected to hold themselves to the highest standards. That also includes our officers abiding by the same laws they swore to uphold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">TPD said it will conduct an internal investigation into the matter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 The Tampa Police Department said one of its probationary officers was arrested, and subsequently&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[18311,114460,70661,114708,135,137,136,3793,567],"class_list":["post-266737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-hillsborough-county-sheriffs-office","tag-kevin-casazza","tag-legal-limit","tag-probationary-officers","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-police-department","tag-wfla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266737","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=266737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}