Jonathan Vazquez, Sasha Lohn: Keeping Rays in St. Petersburg is a win for law enforcement, safety

Security personnel scanning crowds for potential threats at a major event. A male police officer, wearing a cap and with a gray beard, is standing in front of a crowd of fans at an electric blue competition event

Like Major League Baseball teams across the United States, the Tampa Bay Rays invest heavily in the safety and security of the fans and families who attend baseball games in St. Petersburg.

They do this, in part, by hiring law enforcement officers from agencies across Pinellas and Hillsborough counties to work the games.

These law enforcement jobs typically involve providing safety to those parking, heading into the ballpark, and inside the ballpark. When fans see a uniformed officer sweating in the parking lots or walking the stands at Tropicana Field, they can know that their MLB team is investing in ensuring that their ballgame experience is a good one.

In turn, the law enforcement officer is paid for her extra-duty work; empowering her to make and save extra money.

Like many Americans, law enforcement officers are working harder and harder and finding their dollars stretched thinner and thinner. Working the ballgames helps them plan and save for the “extras”: a child’s braces, college classes, or a down payment on a house in a safer neighborhood. It is not flashy work, but it is honest work.

Voting to keep our MLB team in St. Petersburg is voting to continue to create job opportunities for our law enforcement officers.

As the president and executive director/General Counsel, respectively, of the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association, we represent over 1,600 local law enforcement officers and, by proxy, their families.

Law enforcement officers are both public servants and taxpayers. We vote. We show up. We pay attention. We write to all involved stakeholders in these complex negotiations to encourage them to consider their law enforcement officers as they close in on negotiations for a new stadium and surrounding redevelopment.

We are not here to opine on the mountain of agreements required to complete this deal or on the even more staggering mountain of work that all parties must complete to maintain taxpayer trust, healthy government budgets, and baseball in Pinellas County.

Our elected officials are the fiduciaries tasked with keeping their respective governmental budgets healthy. We hold them accountable to do so; both as a union and at the ballot box.

If someone can manage this project in a way that keeps common sense, good baseball, and quality law enforcement in this community, we believe it is this St. Peterburg City Council, this Pinellas County Commission, and Mayor Ken Welch.

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Jonathan Vazquez is president, and Sasha Lohn is executive director and General Counsel of the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association.