ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Two officers with the St. Petersburg Police Department have been suspended for their separate actions, the agency said.
Chief Anthony Holloway rendered the suspensions on Sept. 8 during a command review board meeting.
"There's got to be some disappointment," he said. "Because you're going to hope they're going to do the right thing. But you also got to realize that they're humans, they're going to make mistakes. You got to be able to correct those mistakes and move the organization forward."
According to the department, Officer Cody Csendom was suspended as a result of his actions back on Nov. 23, 2021. He was arrested then by Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies after crashing his personal car into a power pole in Riverview. The sheriff's office then charged him with driving under the influence (DUI).
Csendom has been with the police department since March 2017. When the crash happened, he was working with the K-9 unit, the department said. Since then, he was reassigned to a patrol squad.
The department said Csendom will receive the following disciplinary action:
- 160-hour suspension without pay
- He will abstain from drinking alcohol for 18 months
- He will be subject to random alcohol and drug testing for 18 months
- And he will attend mandatory counseling through the department's employee assistance program.
The second officer suspended was Officer Brandon Bill. According to the department, between Sept. 20, 2021, and March 20, 2022, he falsified his timecard on multiple occasions.
The agency said several times Bill claimed time he spent traveling to and from work as on-duty time. And, he failed to put in the proper check-on and check-off time in Kronos to reflect his actual work time. Additionally, at least once Bill recorded regular work hours for a day he took off instead of taking vacation time.
The department said Bill will receive the following disciplinary action:
- 250-hour suspension without pay
- His accrued vacation balance will be deducted for the approximate 100 hours he didn't properly report in the city's payroll system.
Following the investigation into Bill's time card reporting, SPPD has changed its policy to allow for harsher punishment if another officer were to commit the same offense.
"Anyone caught falsifying or anyone caught changing their timesheet, that he or she could be terminated if we can prove that allegation," Holloway said.
Bill has been with the St. Pete police department since November 2008. He previously worked with the marine unit but has since been reassigned to a patrol squad.
When asked if these incidents have the potential to impact SPPD's recruitment and retention efforts, Holloway said, "No, not at all. It really shows people that we're holding officers here accountable. And that if when they do something wrong, that we're going to address it that everybody makes a mistake in life.
"So instead of terminating that officer, maybe we can help it officer get back on track and that's why sometimes we get a suspension, we make them pay back what they need to pay back to the taxpayers and I can tell you, this happens again, we will go through the process and those two officers can be terminated, then they will be terminated."