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Patrolling Berlin, Tampa

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: March 7, 2009

Updated: 03/07/2009 12:46 am

TAMPA - Rafael Rokitta peered at the laptop Tampa police Officer Jimmy Owens opened on the trunk of a Ford Fusion in a city park Wednesday.

With a few key clicks, Owens looked up possible suspects related to a recent burglary.

"Do you have computers in your car in Germany?" Owens asked.

Rokitta, a trainee for the Berlin police, shook his head. He has to run identity checks from a main police building; nothing portable.

"Just the radio," he said.

"Oh, wow," Owens marveled.

Rokitta is used to the questions. Since Feb. 12, he has been an intern with the Tampa Police Department, shadowing officers as part of his training to be a law enforcement officer in his home country. His internship ends March 23.

So far, he has accompanied officers to the Krewe of Sant' Yago Illuminated Knight Parade in Ybor City, searched for stolen cars, responded to suicides and helped serve a search warrant for drugs.

"Not like we find this Colombian Escobar guy," he explained, referring to drug lord Pablo Escobar, "but we find marijuana. A few grams."

Rokitta, 31, has one semester and exams to complete before he becomes a kriminalkommissar, or a detective, one of about 3,000 in Berlin. Unlike Tampa, where all rookies start as officers, he chose his career path during training. The Berlin police force has about 16,000 officers in a city of about 3 million people. Tampa has about 1,000 officers in a city of about 337,000 people.

A veteran of the German military and the father of a 2-year-old girl, Rokitta said he has wanted to become a police officer since he was a child. Part of his three years of training includes an internship either in a state in Germany or a city in Great Britain, Switzerland, France or the United States. He relished the opportunity to travel.
Assistant Chief of Police Jane Castor accepted the intern after receiving an e-mail from the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, where Rokitta is studying.

"It's a great opportunity," she said. "He's a good guy, and it's been positive for us."

Castor said the Howard Johnson Plaza hotel in downtown Tampa gave Rokitta a reduced rate on his accommodations because he has to pay for his trip. Because Rokitta doesn't have an American driver's license, an officer picks him up for work. Castor loaned him a mountain bike to explore the city in his hours off, and other officers have invited him for dinner to offset his costs.

"The workplace, the people I am with, are absolutely fantastic, give me good support, listen to my bad English," Rokitta said.

Officers chuckled and assured Rokitta he speaks fine.

The officers and the trainee enjoy comparing notes. For instance, as a detective, Rokitta will carry a medallion instead of a badge, a 9 mm handgun and pepper spray, not the Tasers the Tampa officers use.

"It's interesting how the people act when they are hit by this," he said.

Some laws and criminal procedures in Tampa and Berlin are different - civilians don't legally carry firearms there - but the basic police work is the same.

Just like in Tampa, people in Germany don't call the police unless they need help, Rokitta said.

"You're like a dentist. We see only bad teeth."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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