By Lauren Peace
Tampa Bay Times
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CLEARWATER, Fla. — Soon after a Tampa Bay Times story chronicled the death of Audrey Petersen — a Clearwater woman stalked and killed by her ex after filing multiple police reports last year — Clearwater police Chief Eric Gandy found himself in the office of a domestic violence resource center, asking for help.
That conversation marked the beginning of a partnership between the department and CASA Pinellas, the county’s largest service provider for domestic violence.
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All 263 Clearwater patrol officers have since gotten specialized training, Gandy said. And CASA legal experts now work from the department’s headquarters several days a week to help guide victims and educate officers.
“We reviewed our policies and protocols, and while they met minimum standards, they were insufficient,” said Gandy, speaking at a candlelight vigil in late October. “What we found is that we needed a partner.”
Petersen’s murder last February provided a devastating example of how victims can slip through the cracks of Florida’s public safety system, even as they’re seeking help. The Times found that state-mandated training is so limited that it often leaves police ill-prepared to help victims. That’s especially true for instances of non-physical violence, like stalking. In Petersen’s case, there were no reports of physical violence prior to her death, but there were quiet warning signs.
The Petersen case also showed how protocols that steer victims toward court to seek protection can put them in greater danger. In Florida, police are required to tell domestic violence victims they can apply for an injunction — a restraining order that gives officers clearer authority to make an arrest when it’s violated. But the Times found that getting one can be difficult, and the process can set off abusers, as was the case for Petersen.
That’s why it’s so important for police to connect victims with experts who can counsel them through dangerous waters.
That will be easier now.
This summer, Gandy sent his detectives and special victims unit personnel to St. Petersburg to receive hands-on training from CASA’s team. They got lessons on spotting warning signs for murder and navigating the injunction process. They learned about statutory protections for officers who make arrests in good faith and how to use a newly mandated state program for assessing risks to victims. From all that, the detectives designed two more trainings, then shared them with the rest of the department in July and August.
“We needed to establish a better relationship with our subject matter experts, which aren’t cops,” Gandy said. “I think they opened our eyes to a whole other level of training that we could provide.”
The officers and CASA team talked about how police could spread the word about resources for victims, said CASA Pinellas CEO Lariana Forsythe.
“It gave us an opportunity to really brainstorm how we could make it easier for survivors to access our attorneys,” Forsythe said, noting the distance between Clearwater and St. Petersburg as a prior barrier. “We decided it would be great to have those attorneys physically operate out of the Clearwater Police Department, which has turned out to be very beneficial.”
CASA Pinellas has worked with agencies across the county, Forsythe said, and she always welcomes it when police reach out.
The organization is hoping to expand to the northern part of Pinellas County, she said. That would augment the work of The Haven at Hope Villages of America, a domestic violence resource center serving Clearwater.
After Petersen’s murder, Gandy said his department conducted an internal review.
“We did a deep dive into this because I had two officers that were devastated that they couldn’t help her,” said Gandy, referring to those who interacted with Petersen in the week before her death. He noted that they were texting her on off-hours, which he praised as “extremely uncommon.”
In July 2024, five months after Petersen’s death, the department updated its domestic violence policy handbook to improve clarity for officers, Gandy said, and to streamline certain protocols. He was still on a quest to find more improvements when he read the Times reporting.
“It allowed me to investigate avenues I might not have otherwise,” Gandy said. “I may not have known to investigate otherwise.”
Gandy said the complexity of domestic violence situations can be missed by young officers who are trained to evaluate evidence before them and then make an arrest if there’s probable cause. Interpersonal crimes, he’s learned, often exist in a grayer territory. He said arrests alone won’t end domestic violence. That’s why he’s committed to continuing to invest in partnerships with service providers who can support victims beyond the department’s involvement.
“It’s easy, if something goes well, to pat yourselves on the back and say, ‘Good job,’ but even if something goes well, you have to evaluate to see what you can do better,” Gandy said. “And particularly when something goes horribly wrong, you have an obligation to see what you can do better.”
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