TAMPA – Suzy Lopez squinted as she stood in the sunlight with Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister on a secluded stretch of US 301 in Thonotosassa. A sheriff’s deputy had died there in a collision with a semi-trailer. No crime had been committed. The accident was a tragic accident. However, there was López, with his hands crossed and his eyes downcast.

“It seems that no matter the circumstance, we can always count on our state attorney, Suzy Lopez, to be at our side,” the sheriff told television reporters.

Around that same moment, Andrew Warren posted on the social media platform

“The court found that I did my job well and his political stunt violated state and federal laws,” Warren wrote.

That morning in mid-September is a synthesis of the dynamics of one of the most contested local races of this year.

Law enforcement leaders repeatedly touts his close ties to López, boosting his public profile in press conferences and public statements. Meanwhile, Warren and her supporters say Lopez doesn’t belong in a job she hasn’t earned and that should rightfully be hers.

Warren’s policy upset some law enforcement officials

When Warren ran for Hillsborough County office in 2016, she said she wanted to get involved in a national conversation about criminal justice. He talked about reforming the system and how prosecutors think. of their jobs. He spoke of the cases “not as a person to be prosecuted, but as a problem to be solved.”

“I felt like we had an opportunity to shape policy for an entire generation,” he said years later.

In the campaign trial, it stands out his resume when he was in office: Expand the use of civil subpoenas for misdemeanors. Take guns away from people who commit domestic violence. Support policies against “the criminalization of poverty,” such as helping people avoid criminal charges for driver’s licenses suspended for non-payments. Create a conviction review unit to identify and exonerate innocent people in prison.

These His achievements drew applause when he discussed them in public forums.

But Warren’s style also promoted the opposition that led to his dismissal.

Brian Dugan, who was Tampa police chief for most of Warren’s time in office, said local police officers viewed Warren with suspicion. But it wasn’t until halfway through Warren’s term that friction began to occur, he said. They would disagree on charging decisions. The chief felt Warren used the cases for political gain.

“He was always politicizing this and driving a wedge, particularly between the black community and the police department,” Dugan said.

one of many turning points for Dugan was the shooting of Jonas Joseph, a black man killed by Tampa police after they said he fired a gun at them while trying to flee a traffic stop. It happened in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also a time of heightened public concern over police shootings of black men.

Dugan was irritated that no one from Warren’s office came to the scene the night of April 28, 2020, to observe the police investigation into the shooting.

What Warren remembers is that her office was following public health guidelines that discouraged gathering in groups. He noted that he and other prosecutors went to the sites of other police shootings and conducted exhaustive reviews that were made public.

The relationship deteriorated further. as the nation witnessed protests following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Dugan was especially irritated when Warren held a press conference with local black religious leaders to announce that I would not accuse a group of protesters who had been arrested on charges of unlawful assembly.

Dugan said that She wasn’t bothered by the decision itself, but by the way Warren drew attention to it.

“He had reached a point where it was obvious that he didn’t care about anyone but himself,” Dugan said.

Warren said he always approached his role as an “independent partner.” Despite the disagreements, his relationship with the police “worked as it should.”

“My job wasn’t to make everyone happy,” he said. “It was about finding the truth and following the law and that’s what we always did.”

Chronister said he also became frustrated with Warren. He once called him a “partner” on criminal justice and even endorsed his re-election in 2020. But in early 2022, the sheriff expressed concerns about some of Warren’s policies in letters they exchanged.

It was at that point that Gov. Ron DeSantis, concerned about “woke” prosecutors, had his staff investigate whether any Florida prosecutors were not following the law, according to court testimony. They interviewed people from around the state, but not Warren or anyone in her office. When they spoke with Chronister, the sheriff provided them with a list of cases he thought Warren should have pursued.

One case Chronister later publicly cited involved a shooting suspect whom the sheriff said Warren’s office declined to prosecute because of the complexity of the case. Warren’s attorney later said it was because the victim was uncooperative. Similar cases featured defendants with violent criminal histories who, for various reasons, had charges dropped, according to court records.

The Republican sheriff later supported Dugan, a longtime Democrat, and other law enforcement leaders when DeSantis announced Warren’s removal from office. he spoke then of long-standing private frustrations that police officers had expressed with Warren.

The suspension, however, was powered by unrelated statements Warren had made about abortion, DeSantis said at the time. He also cited policies enacted by Warren that encouraged prosecutors to exercise discretion in prosecuting low-level, nonviolent crimes, claiming they were “blanket policies” against law enforcement.

US District Judge Robert Hinkle concluded that it was false. In ruling on Warren’s lawsuit against the governor, Hinkle found that all the evidence indicated that Warren was competent doing his job.

chronicler He has since become one of López’s most prominent supporters. At a fundraiser for her in September, Chronister He criticized Warren’s claims that her policies reduced crime.

“I’m here to tell you that the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reduced crime not because of him, but in spite of him,” Chronister said.

Warren said he worked “extremely well” with the sheriff. He blamed politics for the criticism he and Dugan raised.

“The political knives came out when it was convenient for them to draw them,” Warren said.

López hugs the police officers, but denies the “rubber stamp”

If Warren was considered to have a tense relationship with the police, López shares to family type bond.

In January, she stood alongside Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw near the scene where officers exchanged gunfire with a homicide suspect, a use of force she said her office would be responsible for reviewing.

“The bravery of our officers this afternoon was very well demonstrated,” he said.

Available statistics show an office that defers more to the police.

Data from the Florida State Court Administrator shows that in the first 10 months after Lopez’s appointment, the most comprehensive period for which statistics are available, his office saw a 23% increase in the number of felony charges. serious presented compared to the last 10 months of Warren’s term. During that same period, the number of felony charges resolved with pleas fell by 17%. There were more convictions in the trials, but also more acquittals.

His prosecutorial style has earned Lopez the backing of local police unions. who have long favored tough stances on crime.

it is also the kind of approach that Warren says causes cases to languish while bad prosecutions clog the system.

“The relationship with law enforcement is supposed to be symbiotic, but not in unison,” Warren said in a recent interview with the Tampa Bay Times editorial board.

In his campaign against López, he has resurfaced his statements in a statement related to his lawsuit against the governor. He was asked, hypothetically, if he would press charges if the sheriff complained that people were violating laws that prohibited things like interracial marriage.

“I’m not going to tell him how to do his job and he’s not going to tell me how to do mine,” Lopez said.

Pressed by Warren’s attorney, Lopez ultimately said that filing charges in such a scenario was “crazy.”

In an interview with the Times editorial board, Lopez denied that she “stamped” anything law enforcement brings her.

“We just have great relationships and communicate,” he said. “But there is no rubber stamp. We really hold each other accountable. “Communities are safer when law enforcement does not feel undermined.”

Police support for Warren may not matter

Since Warren’s suspension, Dugan and Chronister have openly expressed their opposition to her return to office. Warren has not been excluded from gaining support from police.

Calvin Johnson, deputy chief of the Tampa Police Department, gave Warren a $500 contribution, campaign finance records show. Johnson, a registered Democrat, said he could not comment on his support for Warren.

Rocky Ratliff, a retired Tampa police major, appeared in some of Warren’s campaign ads.

“The way they did it was wrong,” Ratliff said. “They suspended him for no reason. Even the federal judge said he should not be suspended.”

Ratliff told the Times that he has supported other Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor. He said he likes Lopez and believes she is doing what she believes is right. But he believes Warren understands that “you can’t just stop crime.”

“The Hillsborough County community voted for him twice,” Ratliff said, referring to his election victories in 2016 and 2020. “Then Governor DeSantis suspends him just because he can.”

An open question looms in the race: If Warren wins, would DeSantis simply suspend him again?

the governor has not given a clear answer. But when asked about it at a September news conference in Pinellas Park, DeSantis urged people to talk to Chronister and others about “what it was like under the old regime when criminals knew they could get away with anything.”

“I can tell you that you need prosecutors who are guided by the law,” DeSantis said. “That they are going to enforce the law without fear or favor. That will not bring with it a political agenda.”