Tampa City Council confirms Lee Bercaw as police chief in unanimous vote

After all seven members of Tampa’s City Council heaped praise on interim Chief Lee Bercaw ahead of a vote on whether to allow him to keep the job, chairperson Guido Maniscalco lobbed a tongue-in-cheek question at him.

“Alright, so you still want it?” Maniscalco asked, drawing laughs from the packed council chambers.

“It’s not often you get council to agree on everything together, so I’m humbled,” a smiling Bercaw said as he stood at the lectern.

Moments later, the council voted unanimously to remove the “interim” from Bercaw’s title.

Council members said they agreed with Mayor Jane Castor that Bercaw, a 27-year veteran of the department, has shown that he was up to the job he’d held since December. Bercaw, they said, has brought stability to the department, has the clear backing of the rank-and-file officers and has proven to be responsive to the community and council members.

“You provide stability, you provide reasonableness and a great temperament, which is so important, and you provide great leadership, especially at a time when our police department has had so many challenges over the last several years,” council member Luis Viera said.

The simpatico vote marks a new chapter for a department that has seen three chiefs in the last two years. And the unanimous backing stood in stark contrast to the last time the council voted on Castor’s pick for chief just 15 months ago.

After Chief Brian Dugan retired in 2021, Castor made then-Assistant Chief Ruben “Butch” Delgado interim chief. Castor then drew criticism when, in February 2022, she selected former Tampa Assistant Chief Mary O’Connor for the job over Delgado and an outside finalist. Critics, including some council members, said the search and selection process wasn’t transparent or inclusive enough, and they expressed concern about a criminal arrest on O’Connor’s record. O’Connor’s confirmation nearly died on a 4-2 vote.

O’Connor had won over at least some critics as she worked toward her stated priorities of reducing crime and increasing accountability and community engagement. But in December, after just 10 months on the job, O’Connor resigned at Castor’s request after an internal investigation found the chief violated department policies by flashing her badge during a traffic stop in Pinellas and asked a deputy to let her and her husband go.

Castor, herself a former Tampa police chief who has known Bercaw for decades, appointed him as interim chief while she conducted what she said would be a national search that would be open and transparent. Castor said she would begin the search in earnest after the city’s runoff elections in late April.

As a would-be internal candidate, Bercaw, 51, has the sort of resume that would have made him competitive in his own right.

He started with the department as a reserve officer in 1996 and went on to work in all three of the department’s patrol districts. Dugan promoted Bercaw to assistant chief of operations in January 2020. Prior to that, Bercaw had been serving as Dugan’s deputy chief, overseeing both operations and investigations and support. He has a doctorate in criminal justice from Saint Leo University and, from the University of South Florida, a master’s in criminal justice administration and a bachelor’s in criminology.

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But it was unclear if Bercaw wanted to keep the job. He acknowledged in a prior interview with the Tampa Bay Times that he was used to being a more behind-the-scenes leader, and that he was still getting used to being the face of the department and all of the responsibilities that come with it. He said he wanted to wait until the job was advertised to announce whether he would apply.

But that never happened. Castor as recently as last month said she had picked a consultant for the chief search, but then on June 2 announced she wanted Bercaw to keep the job, citing his performance as interim chief and feedback from community leaders, residents and department personnel.

City Council members echoed that praise on Thursday.

“We’ve been through so many police chiefs in the last couple of years and I know the hardworking men and women of the police department want stability, and the feedback I’ve heard from them is they like your leadership and they feel confident in your leadership,” said council member Bill Carlson, noting that he initially favored a national search.

Newly elected council member Alan Clendenin also said he wanted to cast a nationwide net before deciding on the next chief, but he saw how much support Bercaw had from the Tampa Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents the department’s roughly 1,000 sworn officers.

“I want to applaud the fact that you’re working close with the people that are actually the boots on the ground, the people that are doing the work, day in and day out, and that you’re receptive to their concerns,” Clendenin said.

Council member Lynn Hurtak cited how she’d heard praise from residents about Bercaw, including during a recent visit to East Tampa.

“The people I spoke to said, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s great, he gets back to us right away,’” Hurtak said.

Bercaw said he will continue efforts to reduce crime, expand community policing and increase accountability. He said he is working to grow recruiting efforts to ensure the department has enough officers to police the city of 400,000, and he is focused on increasing diversity among the ranks.

“Our work is not finished,” he said.

The council granted Bercaw, who lives in Pasco County, a one-year waiver from a city rule requiring department leaders to live in the city limits.

Bercaw’s salary as interim chief is $184,766 and will increase to $198,702.