HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A few clips of the violent encounter Tyre Nichols had with the Memphis Police Department were all Enya Silva needed to see to jump into action.
"It's cut and dry; it's just a horrible, horrible situation," Silva said.
She and other members of the Students for a Democratic Society at USF held a vigil for Nichols and several others across the country who have recently died after a police stop.
"Justice for Tyre Nichols, justice for Manny [Teran], and justice for Keenan Anderson," said SDS member Victoria Hinckley.
The group is now calling for all officers connected to Nichols' death to be convicted of their charges and imprisoned. They're also calling for police departments across the state to create Community Police Accountability Councils or CPACs—which are essentially beefed-up versions of existing Citizens Review Boards.
"[The] Citizens Review Board it's not enough at all. First of all, they're like unelected so they're not representative of the people. And then they don't really have the power to like subpoena the police," she said.
But across the bridge in St. Peterburg, the police chief tells ABC Action News that their Citizens Police Review Committee does have some teeth.
"We give them the case, they review it and then they tell us what we did right, what we did wrong, and what we could do better," said Chief Anthony Holloway.
Chief Holloway also said the Tyre Nichols case is one they've discussed internally as the department works to undo the negative ripple effect it's had on them.
"I was disgusted by it. It was not called for," he said, "That has set us back again. Because we have to prove that the other 99% of the officers are doing the right thing and the one percenters can set back law enforcement."
