Stop for cops. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri has a new plan for dealing with motorists who flee from the police: Seize their car. The new policy, which went into effect this week, is aimed at reducing the number of dangerous, high-speed police chases. Gualtieri has addressed this concern before; in 2014, he raised the threshold for when Pinellas deputies can chase a vehicle. Since then, Pinellas has seen about 10 pursuits each year, with just five in 2023. But as the sheriff points out, even without police giving chase, some motorists flee from law enforcement anyway, which can have tragic results. Between January 2022 and April 2024, the sheriff’s office recorded more than 1,042 offenses for fleeing and eluding from deputies, the Times reported. Gualtieri hopes that motorists will think twice when behind the wheel, or when asked to lend their cars. Of course, any such policy could lead to abuse and unintended consequences. But any seizure must pass a legal bar, and car owners have redress in the courts to recover their vehicles. We also have confidence in Gualtieri’s judgment given his record over the years. So try it; maybe the word gets out and it deters motorists from fleeing. If the idea is flawed, it will become clear soon enough.

A healthier port. America’s seaports are its global lifeline, intersections of trade and travel amounting to trillions of dollars that churn the nation’s economy. But what about the people who make it happen — the seafarers traveling from port to port who keep the industry alive? Their health is essential to the seaports and the communities they serve, which is why a new clinic at Port Tampa Bay is such a smart, regional asset. The facility, opened by the University of South Florida College of Nursing in late May, will expand access to seafarers, many from overseas, offering preventive care to keep them healthy on the job. The clinic is the first of its kind in the world, according to USF, and it represents a commendable partnership between a university that appreciates its civic mission and a port leadership that recognizes its place in the global human chain. The clinic will also offer care to other port workers, including longshoremen, bridging a gap for many whose demanding jobs leave little time for routine checkups. This is a great program for mariners and the port alike that should be a model nationwide.

Tampa park recovers. The vandals who damaged Tampa’s Perry Harvey Sr. Park only served to make it stronger. The park, in the northeast corner of downtown, which chronicles Tampa’s rich Black history, was vandalized last fall by someone who smashed and shattered a half-dozen large pieces of public art. It was a troubling attack on an honored place that memorializes the freed slave neighborhood of The Scrub and the thriving heyday of the Black business district along Central Avenue that drew the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway and Ray Charles. But now the art is back; artist Rufus Butler Seder no longer produces his murals, but in April, the 70-year-old removed and replaced dozens of tiles, treating them with a high-pressure laminate to make them tougher. And the park, named for a pioneering Tampa civil rights leader, had more good news: Tampa City Council member Gwen Henderson announced she is forming a committee to support the park’s upkeep and to bring more public events to the space. Tampa police need to continue investigating who caused the vandalism, but the community spoke loudly with its response.

Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, Sherri Day, Sebastian Dortch, John Hill, Jim Verhulst and Chairman and CEO Conan Gallaty. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news.