After a video showing Tampa’s police chief flashing her badge from the golf cart’s passenger seat to avoid a traffic citation surfaced, she was placed on leave.
Chief Mary O’Connor was placed on administrative leave by Tampa Mayor Jane Castor on Friday while an investigation into the traffic stop on November 12 in Oldsmar, a city northwest of Tampa, is ongoing.
The chief is in the passenger seat and O’Connor’s husband is operating the cart when a Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy pulls them stop for driving without tags, as seen in the body camera video posted online by the Tampa Police Department.
“Is your camera on?” O’Connor said. “I’m the police chief in Tampa.”
“I’m hoping that you’ll just let us go tonight,” she says, showing the deputy her badge.
“It’s nice meeting you” O’Connor issued a statement in which she criticized their “poor judgment” in using the cart on public highways without a tag. She claimed it was the first time they had taken it outside of a neighbourhood where golf carts are permitted and where they have real estate.
“As someone who has dealt with, taken ownership of and grown from my past mistakes, I know that no one is above the law, including me,” she said.
A review inside has begun, according to the mayor. The acting chief will be Assistant Chief Lee Bercaw.
“We hold everyone accountable, no matter their position and this behaviour was unacceptable,” Castor said. “Chief O’Connor will go through the due process and face appropriate discipline.”
