Penick was right to call attention to the uncomfortably cozy relationship developing between city police and the church, which has its spiritual headquarters in downtown Clearwater.
Officers sign up for the extra work if they want it and are assigned on a rotating basis.
The situation seems bizarre to observers who know that since the church moved into Clearwater under a false identity in the 1970s, the relationship between Scientology and the Clearwater Police Department has been cool at best, outwardly hostile at worst. The police gathered intelligence on Scientology for years, amassing an enormous investigative file. The church struck back by writing attack pieces about the police, printing them in Scientology publications and throwing them on residents' lawns. The relationship worsened after the suspicious death of church member Lisa McPherson in a Scientology hotel and the arrival of the Lisa McPherson Trust, which is organized and operated out of downtown offices by Scientology critics. There was also a matter of fairness to consider.