{"id":304908,"date":"2026-06-12T07:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/304908\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:28:11","slug":"no-st-pete-police-didnt-use-a-grant-from-tj-maxx-to-buy-another-flock-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/304908\/","title":{"rendered":"No, St. Pete police didn’t use a grant from TJ Maxx to buy another Flock camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

But it does plan to use the nearly $5,000 grant for undisclosed investigative tools the department declined to specify.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Thursday evening, St. Petersburg City Council<\/a> accepted a grant for the police department that’s caused a stir online<\/a>, nearly $5,000 from the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshalls.<\/p>\n

Other Florida cities have used it to buy controversial Flock<\/a> surveillance cameras and the flyer TJX Companies, Inc. uses to advertise its law enforcement grant program says it gives grants agencies that apply for things like “GPS tracking devices, surveillance camera equipment and license plate readers.”<\/p>\n


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TJX adopted body cameras for security guards at TJ Maxx locations in 2024, and has issued grants<\/a> specifically to be used at shopping plazas, in an attempt to combat retail theft. Its grants can also be used for law enforcement to attend retailer conferences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a way for the police department to supplement the budget, be able to buy some extra items, be able to improve our technology,\u201d says St. Petersburg Police Spokesperson Yolanda Fernandez, adding the department all the time applies for federal, state, and private grants. \u201cAnd it doesn’t cost taxpayers more.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Gainesville, police used<\/a> a TJX grant to buy a Flock camera, also known as an automated license plate reader, or ALPR.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, this money is not going to buy anything to do with license plate readers or Flock cameras,\u201d Fernandez says.<\/p>\n

Fernandez says police already have 50 Flock cameras spread throughout the city to identify people and vehicles involved in crimes. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union claim they invade privacy<\/a> and can lead to false arrests. But Fernandez says they’re essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps us find the people that we need to arrest,\u201d she says. \u201cIt has been extremely successful for us here in the police department and a huge part of our investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the grant money will pay for smaller items related to investigative work but declined to elaborate. All grants must be accepted by city council before they can be used. The vote was unanimous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But it does plan to use the nearly $5,000 grant for undisclosed investigative tools the department declined to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-304908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304908","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=304908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}