06/18/2026
As some of you may know, a few weeks ago, our beloved Clearwater Beach was taken over by some individuals who did not treat it the way it needed to be treated. Because of my love for the community and the love of what I do, I decided to reach out to the city of Clearwater and the Police Department to get some answers. The response below is the email directly from the Chief of Police after I expressed my concerns. Hopefully, this clarifies things for some individuals, and they will continue to visit our beloved beaches.
Respectfully yours,
Christopher L. Culver,
President,
Beyond the Bay Delivery Inc.
Morning Mr. Culver,
Now that I’ve had a chance to review the AAR in this case, I wanted to follow up on my commitment to share a synopsis of some of the salient information contained within.
Synopsis:
Prior to this incident we had interrupted or caused 11 events to be cancelled
The language in this flyer and social media comments wasn’t consistent with other takeover styled events we’ve seen - Our Threat Management Unit found no remarks indicting that it was intended to encourage disorderly conduct or facilitate criminal behavior, but they did advise the district commander who had access to additional resources from the mainland
Threat Management determined that the participants were from Haines City and Lakeland
Initially the crowds were consistent with what we see at the end of the school year – The were monitored by the Real Time Operations Center and Officers in the field and weren’t engaged in disruptive or criminal behavior until after the shooting
Once the shooting happened, individuals and groups began running throughout the Pier 60 and S Gulfview Area with some fighting amongst themselves and disorderly conduct observed
When this occurred, the incident commanders leveraged the countywide mutual aid agreement and received resources from PCSO and Largo when the crowd began moving throughout the area
Several suspects were detained/arrested, including one with a firearm
Our detectives determined the suspect and victim were familiar with each other and identified the suspect within a couple of hours
We coordinated with Polk County Sheriff’s Office who located and arrested the suspect on our charges
Lessons Learned / Areas to Improve:
There is the strong possibility that the organizer purposely created a flyer and comments to make the event look benign – With this possibility, we will be overstaffing even when the posts are ambiguous, appear benign, or we can’t identify the poster
Ensure the mere potential for such an event is communicated beyond the district command level to the Patrol Major
Create mechanism for hotels and beach businesses to provide tips on any events originating on social media (completed)
Use a zero-tolerance enforcement approach to low level ordinance and traffic violations to discourage events from building momentum
Leverage Florida State Statute 316.191 related to street takeovers and utilize those provisions for enhanced penalties
Leverage Florida State Statute 810.09 2K – We used this more recent amendment to the trespass statute last Wednesday to deny access to a portion of Pier 60 Park related to another planned takeover
Continue to send warning letters to organizers and send detectives to speak with them in person
Leverage the resources of the State-Wide-Prosecutor in the event we identify organizers conspiring to use these events to facilitate criminal behavior
Although I can’t share the full AAR due to confidential security and staffing information contained within, I’m hopeful this helps to provide perspective and addresses any concerns you expressed over the handling of this incident.
Take care
Eric
Chief Eric Gandy
Clearwater Police Department
727.562.4343
[email protected]
