Florida police chief's golf-cart traffic stop a lesson in bad judgment, special treatment
I was all set to be sympathetic with the police chief of Tampa who lost her job this week over the way she reacted to being pulled over while riding in a golf cart.
At first blush, the words “traffic stop” seemed to be a stretch of the English language in this case. On a Saturday night last month, Tampa Police Chief Mary O’Connor was off-duty when she and her husband had traveled in their cart to their community clubhouse for dinner.
Golf carts need license plates for some Florida roadways
In Florida, your golf cart doesn’t require a tag if it’s being driven on a golf course, or in a golf-cart-designated community where the posted speed limits are not more than 30 miles per hour.
The clubhouse restaurant was closed, so O’Connor and her husband opted to pick up dinner at a nearby Greek restaurant outside the guard gates.
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They should have driven the cart home, and switched to a motor vehicle to pick up the food. The Greek-food mission would put them on a road where a license plate was required for their cart. And they didn’t have one.
But they tried to go to the restaurant in the cart. And they got caught.
When they were about 100 yards outside the community gates on a service road, they were pulled over by Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Jacoby.
Like I said, I was initially sympathetic to the chief. Years ago, I got a $200 traffic ticket in Palm Beach County on my bicycle. I was pedaling through a changing yellow-to-red light on A1A early on a weekend morning when the only motor vehicle in the area was an Ocean Ridge police cruiser hiding in the bushes.
So, yes, the police chief’s stop felt familiar.
But then I watched the bodycam video of the traffic stop and quickly changed my mind. Oh boy, this was a textbook case of poor behavior from everyone involved.
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For starters, the first thing the chief asks the deputy is if the stop is being recorded on video. That’s only something you ask if you anticipate saying some things you wouldn’t care to explain.
And yet, when Jacoby tells the chief she is being recorded, O’Connor carries on as if he had said, “No.”
“I am the police chief in Tampa,” she quickly tells the deputy, while leaning across her husband to hand the deputy her badge.
You might imagine that the deputy would have just acknowledged it, and then continued to explain to her husband, who was driving, why it was a safety issue in operating a golf cart on a road with a higher speed limit.
A traffic stop turns cordial and friendly
But instead, Jacoby turns instantly docile and friendly. And the issue of her husband breaking a traffic law disappears.
“Oh, how you doing?” Jacoby asks the chief.
“I’m doing good,” she answers. “I’m hoping that you’ll just let us go tonight.”
“I have to say you look familiar,” the deputy says.
“Yeah, I’m sure I do,” she responds.
It’s all laughs and good cheer now. And Jacoby quickly lets her know there will be no ticket tonight. Not even a safety mention.
“All right, folks, well have a good night,” the deputy says. “It was nice to meet ya.”
“Same here, my friend,” the chief says.
Within 30 seconds, it’s not a traffic stop. It’s a roadside social event. Without being asked his name, the deputy volunteers, “I’m Deputy Jacoby.” We’ve gone from roadside stop to roadside networking.
“Take care of yourself,” the chief says.
And then for a capper, the deputy says, “Sorry to bother you,” and “All right. No worries. No worries.”
He’s about to send them off into the night again when the chief then seals her doom by making it even more clear how much she is leveraging her job here.
Sharing handshakes, praise and a business card
She reaches over and hands the deputy her business card and says, “If you ever need anything, call me. Serious.”
The deputy takes her card.
“Thank you for your service,” she says, extending her hand for a handshake. The deputy reaches out and shakes her hand. “Thank you for yours,” he says.
Point of clarification: Who is being served here?
When the video of the stop became public weeks later, it triggered an internal affairs investigation of O’Connor’s conduct. She told investigators that she identified herself as a police officer during the stop “for safety” reasons, but admitted that she shouldn’t have asked to be spared a ticket.
“Chief O’Connor advised she provided her business card as she does with hundreds of citizens and law enforcement officers,” the report said. “She added that this action was not intended to give the deputy any type of preferred treatment.”
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor fired O’Connor. As for the deputy who let her go, he’s in the clear.
“Deputy Larry Jacoby did absolutely nothing wrong,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told news reporters this past week. “I stand by him 110 percent.” He said the chief was wrong, but the deputy “did his job.”
“While she asked for a favor, he didn’t give her a favor,” Gualtieri said.
Maybe Gualtieri was watching the wrong bodycam video. Or he missed the part when instead of a ticket, his deputy gave the chief an apology for stopping her while breaking a traffic law.
“He handled that as he would have handled any other like situation, and any other like traffic stop,” the sheriff continued.
Yeah, but in an abundance of caution, I wouldn’t advise any other Florida driver to expect an apology from an officer for stopping you while breaking a traffic law.
Frank Cerabino is a columnist at the Palm BeachPost, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at fcerabino@gannett.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tampa Police Chief Mary O'Connor loses job over golf-cart traffic stop
