HUFFINGTON
08.19.12
TAMPA’S MAVERICK COP
than 250 men and women sleep
in separate facilities, on pallets
laid flat on the floor, while armed
security guards stand outside,
turning away anyone who arrives
after the 8:30 curfew.
Donaldson doesn’t think much
of this strategy. “If you want
people to do better,” he says, “put
them with people who are doing better than them. Don’t stick
them all together in a warehouse,
where they’re just reinforcing the
behaviors that made them homeless in the first place.”
Donaldson hasn’t yet gathered
nearly enough evidence to convince skeptics that his approach
works best, but it’s hard not to
wonder whether other police officers could at least benefit from
hearing what he has to say.
His own bosses and colleagues
are doing just that. Jerry Andrews,
a deputy in the Hillsborough sheriff’s department, has spent hours
shadowing Donaldson and emulating his methods. And just eight
months ago, Tampa’s city police
Officer
Donaldson,
pictured here
with a young
man named
Bryant, is a
pioneering
force in how
communities
should deal
with the
situation of
homelessness.