ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A St. Petersburg police officer has been arrested on a domestic battery charge for the second time while employed by the same department, and the case is drawing renewed attention to the issue of officer-involved domestic violence.
Officer Curtis Wright was arrested in February while on parental leave, accused of battering his wife. According to the complaint, Wright admitted to grabbing his wife's left wrist with his right hand to prevent her from removing their child from the crib.
It is not the first time Wright has faced this charge. In 2016, he was arrested on the same domestic battery charge while working for the St. Petersburg Police Department — that time involving a then-girlfriend. Court documents from that case state the victim said Wright grabbed her hand, twisted her body behind him, and tried using her fingers to open and unlock a phone. The victim said she was walking to her room when Wright grabbed her and "body slammed" her to the floor. Documents note Wright received injuries as well. The state attorney chose not to prosecute, and we're told the victim did not want to move forward.
WATCH: St. Pete police chief addresses how domestic violence cases are handled after officer is arrested
Wright has entered a not guilty plea. He is set to return to the department on March 7, when he will begin an administrative assignment and will not be on the street as the case moves forward.
St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway says the department has a policy specific to domestic violence involving their own officers and that they confront the issue directly.
"We don't want to hide it, we don't want our victim to be in fear like, I'm not going to report it because nothing's going to be done. I can tell you, and I can only speak for this agency, something will be done. It will be investigated. And come to find out, if that officer, if he or she did something wrong, we're going to address it," Holloway said.
Holloway explained that in Wright's case, the department must wait until the court proceeding concludes before beginning an internal affairs investigation — a requirement tied to a legal protection known as the Garrity Rule.
"There's a rule that's called 'Garrity', and what that means is that I can — force him, so to speak, give a statement, but then you can use it against him in a court of law," Holloway said.
Once the internal investigation begins, Holloway says officers do not have the option to stay silent.
"Once the investigation starts — he doesn't have a choice, he or she does not have a choice to plead the fifth. They have to give a statement. They can't say they don't want to talk about it. Oh, you're going to talk about it. Or you'll be terminated. So you have to speak," Holloway said.
Holloway told the I-Team St. Petersburg also offers free in-house counseling available around the clock — not only to officers, but to their families as well.
"So we take a very aggressive approach to it that we wanna keep that family unit together, but when something does happen, we want to make sure we have things in place and we ask ourselves what could we have done as an agency to make sure this didn't happen," Holloway said.
When asked what he would say to a victim who may be afraid to call the same agency that employs their alleged abuser, Holloway said calling a different agency is another option.
"Call a different agency, get the help that you need, because no one in law enforcement wants to see that," Holloway said.
Holloway added that local domestic violence shelters can also report abuse, and that any call for help will reach them.
"We don't want to put an officer out there on the street that he or she could be a problem not only to the spouse, but also to the community," Holloway said.
"We want to make sure our citizens are aware of — we will investigate our own," Holloway said.
Wright's arrest is case number 93 on a list being tracked by Bruce Bieber, a local father who has spent months documenting publicly reported officer-involved domestic violence cases from across the country.
"There is a tendency among law enforcement to avoid looking in the bright light at their problem," Bieber said.
Bieber's daughter, Abby, was a Hillsborough County deputy who was shot and killed four years ago by her boyfriend, Detective Daniel Leyden, before he turned the gun on himself.
Since then, Bieber has made it his mission to track these cases and advocate for every law enforcement agency to have dedicated training and policies on police-perpetrated domestic violence, something recent arrests only further fuel.
Tampa Bay 28 Investigative Reporter Kylie McGivern has followed Bieber's efforts since 2025.
"I knew it was a problem…it had killed my daughter after all," Bieber said. "I had no idea how widespread, how common, how frequent it was."
Last week, his list, which he began on August 27, hit 100 cases.
"This is 178 days to get to 100, these reported cases," Bieber said. "It is well-known that domestic violence is under-reported. It just strikes me as an appalling failure to confront what is such a widespread, devastating problem that affects law enforcement families."
Bieber publishes the cases on his LinkedIn and maintains a spreadsheet to keep a running record.
WATCH: Local father's push for officer-involved domestic violence training
Training nationally was once available online through Florida State University.
“16 years ago, they developed a very comprehensive — they called it the OIDV Officer-Involved Domestic Violence Training Toolkit back then," Bieber said.
Karen Oehme, Director of the Institute for Trauma and Resilience Studies at FSU, ran the program.
“At that time in Florida, Florida led the nation. In efforts to prevent officer-involved domestic violence, I mean we were ahead of everyone. We were the ones who were really trying to develop a comprehensive prevention campaign," Oehme told the I-Team.
The Verizon Foundation funded the project, which had heavy involvement input from law enforcement agencies.
"So we had a Florida project that then became a national project and thousands of officers, many thousands of officers across the country, took the core of this project, which was an online training," Oehme said.
“They put it out, it worked, and the money dried up and it stopped," Bieber said.
Oehme told the I-Team, "The last thing that the committee did was develop Florida's model policy.”
Currently, Florida has no uniform policy for officer-involved domestic violence. Some agencies, like the St. Pete Police Department, have implemented their own policies while others have none.
"I feel that it would be very helpful for the state to have a written formal policy. That every agency has access to and every agency can use so that everyone understands the importance of preventing officer-involved domestic violence and specific procedures and plans to help agencies prevent officer-involved domestic violence. There area range of things that agencies can do. But you know, honestly, there's safety in numbers," Oehme said. "It seems to be much more palatable to agencies if everyone is doing it."
“It makes abundant sense to me to resurrect that, to reinvigorate it, to bring new life to it, and put it into practice," Bieber said.
As a surviving parent, Bieber has channeled his grief into action.
"You know, what can I do, how can I stop it from happening to somebody else? And I did exactly that. I chose to fight. And to prevent somebody else from getting the knock at the door," Bieber said. "To tell us the news that no parent wants to hear."
Bieber said he hopes that continuing to speak about a topic many would rather avoid, will ultimately save lives.
"I can't think of a higher order accomplishment than... to know that somebody hear Abby's story and because they heard that story, they are alive," Bieber said.
Click here for domestic violence resources.
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Kylie McGivern works tirelessly to get results for the people of Tampa Bay. Her reporting has exposed flaws in Florida’s corrections system and unemployment process. Reach out to Kylie and our I-Team if you need help holding state leaders accountable.
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