I'm always accused of never bad mouthing the Police. Here you go fans, when the police do wrong they need to be punished same as anybody else. The Pinellas County deputy who let her off should lose his job along with the Tampa chief. No excuse for this. Tampa Police Chief Mary O'Connor on administrative leave after bodycam footage surfaces
Leave needs to evolve to unemployed. Was the officer who dismissed her on her staff, or another jurisdiction?
another jurisdiction, and she even asked if his bodycam was on before she requested to be let go. I wonder what she would have told him if his bodycam wasn't on.
Can’t really punish on what “might” have happened. Honestly, the deputy is probably the one in hot water here for preferential treatment. Many people who are pulled over will say a variety of things in attempt get themselves off the hook. Short of bribing him or threatening his job security, there’s technically nothing wrong with her ID’ing herself and making known her profession. I think the deputy is the one in trouble here.
Your takes aren’t that good. The mayor (former chief) her self said her behavior is “unacceptable” “ and that we should expect appropriate discipline. Ordinarily this would not be a big deal but this chief has a checkered history and was not well liked. For that reason her job might be on the line…
I agree but in no way agree with the practice. Back in the 70s I played on a softball team with a bunch of State Troopers, we were playing in a tournament in Lakeland and our coach who was a FHP major told us to follow him on the road trip, we broke the speed limit all the way there. Apparently the on duty Troopers on the route had been instructed to stand down. It pissed me off even in that day.
This is getting way overblown imo. Should they have gotten a ticket? I don’t know. Discretion is used all the time. I will say the officer that pulled them over should have handled it more professionally from asking If they knew the law when it comes to golf carts and driving outside their community. If he believed it was truly an accident then a warning would make sense to me. If there was a real problem with it happening and they felt the need to give tickets regardless of circumstances then he should have done that. There is nothing wrong with her showing that she is the police chief. But the officer sure seemed to lose focus on his job when she did that. I get the people who hate police are going to hate on the police chief for asking for a courtesy. But at the end of the day the officer had every ability to still cite her husband. If this was a DUI…then it is a big deal. This really is a nothing burger. Now if there is proof that every single golf cart pulled over outside the community is ticketed and they are the Only ones who have not been. I would be frustrated. But this typed of offense is one that I believe likely gets verbal warnings all the time in a lot of circumstances. Could be wrong but…
I think if he had been thinking on his feet, he would have responded that he treats everyone the same and was going to give her a warning before he knew who she was. I've seen various videos with cops pulling over cops. They often try to help them one way or another, but now that many have body cams, that's tough to do with more serious things like DUIs.
Agree, and this seems like the kind of situation where a cop would just let someone know that the carts are only allowed in a certain area and then let them go with a warning. I've been let off with a warning for minor issues before. It isn't that unusual. She put him in a bad position by asking for the professional courtesy right away.
This is so far down the list of terrible shit cops do that it doesn’t move the needle for me at all. I’ve always assumed this was common practice.
she has resigned... Tampa’s police chief resigns after flashing badge during golf cart stop (nbcnews.com)
Agreed. DUIs are one that should not be looked past either. Reckless driving should not be looked past. It felt like the cop got caught off guard being that it was a chief of police and he likely would have been giving a verbal or written warning at most anyways. Felt like he lost focus but ended up at a result most could see happening regardless of who it was. It just did not look or sound good. Especially the giving of the business card.
