Tampa police chief placed on leave after flashing badge in golf cart traffic stop

Orlando Mayorquin, USA TODAY
·2 min read

Tampa has placed its police chief on administrative leave after officer-worn camera footage showed her using her position as chief to get out of a traffic stop on Nov. 12.

Chief Mary O’Connor and her spouse were riding in a golf cart in Oldsmar, Florida, a city near Tampa, when they were stopped by a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy for not having a license plate, the Tampa Police Department said in a statement.

In the video posted on the department’s YouTube channel, O’Connor asks the deputy “Are you recording?” and then tells him “I’m the police chief in Tampa. ... I’m hoping that you’ll just let us go tonight” as she shows him her badge.

“You looked familiar,” the deputy responds before letting the couple go.

"It was poor judgment on our part to be driving a golf cart on a public roadway without the appropriate tags,” O’Connor said in a statement Thursday. “I knew my conversation was on video, and my motive was not to put the deputy in an uncomfortable position. I have personally called the Pinellas County Sheriff offering to pay for any potential citation.”

O’Connor said in the statement she expressed "great remorse" for the incident to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.

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"We hold everyone accountable, no matter their position, and this behavior was unacceptable,” Castor said in a statement Thursday. “Chief O'Connor will go through the due process and face appropriate discipline."

Castor announced Friday that O’Connor would be placed on leave while an investigation was completed. An assistant police chief will serve as interim chief, the mayor said.

Castor appointed O'Connor police chief in February, according to the department's website.

The deputy who stopped O'Connor is not under review and will not face any discipline, Sergeant Amanda Sinni, of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, told USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tampa police chief who asked to get out of traffic stop put on leave

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