Wandering police department gets Kenneth City mayor's attention

[lewisipso]

KENNETH CITY — The mayor finally had had enough.

For months, Teresa Zemaitis had been frustrated by the Kenneth City Town Council's refusal to listen to her complaints about problems in the Police Department.

So the mayor of this town of 4,980 sicced the sheriff on her own department.

Wow.

• Police Chief Douglas Pasley used his town-owned car to visit such places as Orlando, Ellenton and the State Fair.

• Pasley and two of his officers regularly spent time on duty having breakfast at the Bob Evans restaurant across from Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg. The two officers did not have their computer/GPS systems turned on when traveling to and from the restaurant even though they were on duty.

• Kenneth City police officers frequently venture out of Kenneth City on duty.

"I felt that I would not be diligent as mayor if our largest department was not running efficiently and I did not do something about it," Zemaitis said Thursday.

So Zemaitis turned to Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats, who agreed to do an investigation at no charge.

"We have done this before," sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said Thursday. "It is not out of the ordinary for a city official or a law enforcement official from another agency to ask for the sheriff's assistance."

Deputies also conducted surveillance on Pasley and other officers. They asked Zemaitis if they could put a GPS tracker on the chief's car to make the job easier. She said yes.

Good grief. Talk about a mess.

Wandering police department gets Kenneth City mayor's attention - St. Petersburg Times

[Five-0]

Going to have to side with the mayor on this one.

[Broke Hoss]

Sounds like the problems are deeper than just the PD, but I think it obvious they have a problem.

[Jks9199]

Don't know. Some of that doesn't seem like a big deal to me. How far away is St Petersburg? I work in a small jurisdiction, and we've been known to go a little outside for a meal. Still got the radio, and we're close enough to get back quick. And who doesn't at least know of, if not know personally, an officer who spends much of their shift in one hideaway or another? It ain't right, and it's a supervision failure -- but it's not unheard of.

And it's pretty clear that there's some bad blood between the mayor and at least the chief...

[luckyme]

I'm a little surprised that the county did the investigation. I would have thought that it would fall on the state to look into it.

Looking at google maps, Kenneth City looks to be IN St. Pete. From PD door in Kenneth to PD door in St. Pete is 6.8 miles.

Turning off your GPS to go eat though automatically looks suspicious.

[Five-0]

Turning off your GPS to go eat though automatically looks suspicious.

That will get you just about fired at my place. Lying about it will get you a firing squad.