TAMPA, Fla. — The West Tampa area has seen its fair share of plight over the years, but it has also seen a sense of resurgence.
However, the question remains, even with new businesses making a home along areas like west Main Street, is the crime in the area worth the revamp?
People who work in the area say they don't know.
ABC Action News took those concerns to Tampa Police Lt. Whitney McCormick. She cut her teeth as a rookie officer in 2009 along the streets of west Tampa. She patrolled the area for six years until she was moved to two other districts.
In February 2022, she was reassigned to her former route, and it's one she said has seen its fair share of changes.
"The biggest change is all of the construction and all of the different areas that are built up. The businesses here now. In 2009, you didn't have breweries. You didn't have these private entities that are starting to bring their businesses," Lt. McCormick said.
Despite the development over the years, those who own public businesses in the area said they are thinking twice about staying.
BUSINESSES RESPOND
The owner of Bay Cannon Beer company has since put a halt on operations after a deadly shooting in December of 2022 that left one woman dead. And he's not the only one rethinking business in West Tampa.
Employers nearby have held meetings on whether it's safe to keep their doors open too.
Ignacio Torano, who works in an office of about 30 people, is one of them. Bullet holes remain in the wall and windows of the space after a shooting in December.
"Police actually had to unscrew the panels to get the bullets and the casings out," Torano said. "It’s scary because my desk is about five feet from this, and that could have easily been in the path walking by casually and been there.”
The shootings happened over the weekend. In one instance, a bullet broke through a second-story window and through a computer screen.
"If someone would have been sitting there, they wouldn’t be here today," Torano said.
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Torano said the shootings aren't limited to the weekends. In one instance, a shooting happened in the middle of a workday. Employees said block parties and open drinking of alcohol are also a problem.
Ideally, he said he would like to see more police presence and said that is something the area is missing.
"You know, I would say no, and it’s just that we don’t see the police out here. We see drug activity going on. We see violence going on, but the police doesn’t have a presence out here," Torano said.
POLICE REMAIN IN AREA
Lt. McCormick said police are patrolling even if they're not seen in uniform.
'We have plain clothes officers that are constantly around here. I spent several years also in a plain-clothed unit to where we have officers that are driving around in plain cars that you would never know they were police officers and they intercept crime all the time that no one even knows is about to happen because they see it before it happens," Lt. McCormick said.
Lt. McCormick didn’t deny crime is an issue in West Tampa and said the streets have gotten safer over the years.
ABC Action News requested the calls for service in the 1900 and 2000 block of west Tampa from January 1st, 2021, to December 21st, 2022. That area includes December's deadly shooting.
In 2021, police were called out 243 times. That number declined to 179 the next year.
"The cops are here. I assure you the cops are here," Lt. McCormick said. "We need the community. We need everybody to start working together and having conversations and working together as partners."
