Tampa Police Chief Mary O’Connor has been positioned on administrative depart following a site visitors cease the place she flashed her badge to a Florida county sheriff’s deputy in November, the town’s mayor Jane Castor introduced Friday.
Neighborhood members are criticizing O’Connor, who was picked for the function in February, after she informed the deputy about her place and that she hoped they’d “simply let” her and her husband Keith go from the site visitors cease, the Tampa Bay Instances reported.
Physique digital camera footage exhibits Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy Larry Jacoby asking the 2 why they had been driving in a golf cart with out a license plate earlier than she confirmed the deputy her badge.
“I’m the police chief in Tampa... I’m hoping that you simply’ll simply allow us to go tonight,” O’Connor stated.
She later handed over a enterprise card to the deputy and stated “you ever want something, name me.”
The deputy later let the pair go with out handing them a ticket.
You possibly can watch a clip of the cease under.
O’Connor will likely be on depart as the town awaits the outcomes of an investigation into the cease, in keeping with Castor.
Assistant Chief Lee Bercaw will fill O’Connor’s function and function appearing chief within the meantime.
O’Connor, who apologized to Castor and Tampa residents, stated her dealing with of the matter may very well be considered as “inappropriate.”
“I knew my dialog was on video, and my motive was to not put the deputy in an uncomfortable place,” stated O’Connor in a information launch related to the depart announcement.
“I've personally known as the Pinellas County Sheriff providing to pay for any potential quotation.”
Hillsborough County NAACP president Yvette Lewis stated O’Connor’s badge-flashing reveals how regulation enforcement take care of each other and switch a blind eye, the Tampa Bay Instances reported.
“But when it’s in your law-enforcement household, they don’t see and say one thing,” Lewis stated. “They see one thing and shut their mouths and stroll away.”
Castor stated that the town’s holds “everybody accountable, regardless of their place, and this conduct was unacceptable” and added that O’Connor “will undergo the due course of and face acceptable self-discipline.”
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