Description
The neighborhoods along fourth street south are in desperate need of more police and City leadership attention. As the downtown area continues to grow, its becoming more evident that the homeless and drug-related groups have moved south to the bust stops, business fronts and parks along fourth street south. With that has come intoxicated people filling the streets, and groups of people trashing these parks. As this is a growing area for St. Pete, this growing problem in the south cannot be overlooked. It has now become one large, free for all party in this area, and residents are avoiding these running paths, biking paths, and park walks altogether. Please put more attention and focus to cleaning up and regulating these areas.
33 Comments
Big Bayou Resident (Registered User)
Raleigh (Registered User)
Acknowledged Customer Support (Verified Official)
Shawny Davis (Registered User)
Shawny Davis (Registered User)
St. Petersburg police officers responded to Bartlett Park at 2: 13 p.m. on Sunday and found Danielle Delores Teeples, 40, completely nude.
Witnesses told police that Teeples had been acting erratically and rubbing her hair and breasts while screaming and running between two trees.
There were numerous people at the park at the time of the incident and vehicles on 4th Street South were slowing down and honking at Teeples as they saw her running around in the nude.
Teeples allegedly told police she had recently taken spice, crystal meth and crack cocaine. She said she believed a giant spider was on her, so she took her clothes off to get away from it. She told officers she was disturbed by her behavior.
Police say she initially refused to put her clothes back on.
Teeples was arrested on a charge of exposure of sexual organs.
Customer Support (Verified Official)
Customer Support (Verified Official)
Customer Support (Verified Official)
Customer Support (Verified Official)
Shawny Davis (Registered User)
Big Bayou Resident (Registered User)
Perry (Registered User)
Bob Davie (Registered User)
Goldnwolf (Registered User)
Veteran, Social and Homeless Services (Registered User)
Thank you for reporting these concerns. Based on observation, there are individuals congregating in the right-of-way near Wendy's and McDonalds and in Bartlett Park. Individuals are legally permitted to be in these locations and we can not remove individuals from these locations unless they are violating the law. The Police Department is aware of neighborhood concerns about this area and I am sure they will take appropriate action for criminal activity. In addition, we actively offer assistance to homeless individuals who desire it, including shelter accommodations. Congregations of potentially homeless individuals in the City right-of-way or in public parks is not an issue isolated to South St. Petersburg. The Police Department and homeless care providers encounter this issue at different locations throughout the City. I have shared this complaint with our homeless street outreach team and asked them to go by this location to offer their assistance to anyone they find in need of help. Our outreach team can get them connected to shelter, housing, meals, medical care, substance abuse treatment and other services they may be in need of. I've also referred this to our Police Department and asked them to actively monitor this location at all hours of the day, including evening and early morning hours. Should they encounter anyone, they will also offer their help, including free transportation to shelter, and, if necessary, enforce the criminal laws and local ordinances. However, if any of you observe obvious criminal activity, please call the Police Department immediately, because it will prompt a much speedier response than lodging your concerns via SeeClickFix. I appreciate you contacting us regarding this issue as communication with the public helps us to understand and prioritize community concerns. I want to assure you that we are actively engaged with the homeless population along 4th Street South and we are working to address your concerns within a legal framework. Thank you again for reporting this to us.
Theresa Jones. Manager
Veterans, Homeless, and Social Services
Bob Davie (Registered User)
Bob
Goldnwolf (Registered User)
The Veteran , Homeless and Social Services are HOMELESS ADVOCATES .... does everyone understand the meaning of that word, advocate? The people in that company are not there to help those of us who pay our taxes and maintain our properties and try to live in a nice neighborhood. They are there to help homeless people. They say promising stuff but inevitably their mission is to help the homeless, it’s not to help us!
St. Petersburg paid multiple tens of thousands of dollars to have a study done many years back about the homeless. They paid an outside think tank like cities do for some reason even though those think tanks come up with things that we all know anyway , usually it’s just the obvious logical conclusions. My hometown in New Hampshire paid many thousands of dollars to have a think tank come in to tell him how to rearrange parking in our small parking lot… The end result?… We got one extra parking spot! LOL!
Anyway I digress , my point is there is a report that is public and anyone can see it , and one of the main things they stressed was feeding the homeless does not help them and in fact it hurts them! Anyone who uses their brain and not their heart to think about this can see that that only makes sense. Feeding them and really you could extend that to housing them and giving them showers etc. just ENABLES them to continue living that way. While obviously there are some homeless who need and deserve a helping hand, especially our Veterans who fought for our freedom, the majority of them are choosing to be homeless… Think about it, if there were no food kitchens and no salvation army and no homeless advocates handing out food and clothes… and the homelss were literally starving , do you think they would still choose to live that way?
And why don’t the homeless advocates invite the homeless to live in THEIR neighborhoods instead of coming to our neighborhoods and bringing them food and enabling them to continue to ruin our standard of living and urinate and defecate in OUR backyards??
Our taxes already pay for countless social programs such as Medicaid and Medicare and food stamps and section 8 and Social Security and disability and child support services… The list is literally endless. The homeless people have no excuse to be living on the streets.
It is a choice. CLOSE THE SALVATION ARMY NOW!!!
Raleigh (Registered User)
Perry (Registered User)
Goldnwolf (Registered User)
The problem here is this is a circular argument… The police and the city say their hands are tied… Then various citizens point out some of the rules that could be enforced…then the city and the police say their hands are tied.....and the argument goes round and round! So to stop this argument once and for all we need to really think about the statement I’ve made on here multiple times: “If the Mayor lived here this would not be happening.”
Let’s all stop and think about what that statement means. If the Mayor lived here a solution would be found. If the Mayor lived across from Bartlett Park no way in the world would this problem be allowed to persist! Now I don’t think there’s anyone in the Police department or in the city or any citizen who would disagree with that statement? So what does that mean… It means that there IS a solution because if the Mayor lived hear a solution would be found. I do not know what that solution is but clearly it exists , so why don’t the city and the police department just pretend the Mayor lives here and go ahead and enact that solution!
Stop telling us no solution exist… I think I just made clear that there is a solution...
Veteran, Social and Homeless Services (Registered User)
Thank you for your complaint regarding homeless nuisance and potential criminal activity along 4th Street South. This information was forwarded to the District I Commander, Major Matthew McKinney to address. Currently the district I Community Service Unit, supervised by Sergeant Brian Gainer is actively working this area. The Community Service Unit has recently teamed up with cooperative business owners in the area in a manner to allow the effective initiation of operational plans which are in place. Due to individual rights, this is a sensitive issue which requires careful, deliberate actions on a going forward basis. Please be assured that the results of our efforts will soon be visible. Please direct any further complaints regarding this issue to Sergeant Brian Gainer at (727) 893 – 4970.
Thank you again for your concern.
Shawny Davis (Registered User)
m3black (Registered User)
Shawny Davis (Registered User)
Shawny Davis (Registered User)
Goldnwolf (Registered User)
Shawny Davis (Registered User)
Closed Customer Support (Verified Official)
(posted on behalf of Assistant Chief Joseph Dente, SPPD)
Thank you for this SeeClickFix post regarding homeless nuisance and potential criminal activity along 4th Street South around the 400 Block of 17 Avenue South. This information was forwarded to the District I Commander, Major Matthew McKinney to address. Currently, the District I Community Service Unit, supervised by Sergeant Brian Gainer is actively working this area. The Community Service Unit has recently teamed up with cooperative business owners in the area in a manner to allow the effective initiation of operational plans which are in place. Due to individual rights, this is a sensitive issue which requires careful actions on a going forward basis. The safety and quality of life issues of our citizens is our utmost priority and this area will be constantly monitored as we move toward a resolution to this issue. Please direct any further issues to Sergeant Brian Gainer at (727) 893 – 4970.
Thank you again for your post.
Sincerely,
Joseph Dente
Assistant Chief of Police
Uniform Services Bureau
St. Petersburg Police Department
Customer Support (Verified Official)
Customer Support (Verified Official)
Customer Support (Verified Official)
Customer Support (Verified Official)
Customer Support (Verified Official)
This issue has been marked as a duplicate of issue 4697265.
Issue 4697265 has already been closed and archived.
Please follow the link to view details on the resolution
of issue 4697265.