Good Cop? Bad Cop? Or just doing his job?

This traffic stop occured in November, 2006.

The woman, who was speeding, was pulled over.

TAMPA - Late on the night of Nov. 1, William Johnston called and told his daughter he thought he was having a heart attack.

He set out for the hospital, driving himself.

Frantic, Melissa Langston, 37, jumped in her Thunderbird convertible and raced along Fletcher Avenue toward University Community Hospital.

The route took her past Hillsborough Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Stabins, who clocked her going almost 30 miles an hour over the speed limit and pulled her over.

Panicked and anxious, she begged him to let her go on to the hospital.

Unmoved, he launched into a by-the-book traffic stop routine, preparing to write her a speeding ticket.

The situation escalated from there.
Full Story


This is a 9 minute video, it shows the entire trafiic stop, make sure you listen to the conversation at the end.
Traffic Stop Video

Some of you may have seen this on the News over the last day or so.
I've shown this to others, and there has been some disagreement over how this particular stop was handled.

I'd love to read some of your opinions.
What do you think about this incident?




[edit on 5-5-2007 by spacedoubt]

Cops have the powers of discretion in virtually every scenario they encounter. There may be nothing in the policy and procedures manual about the exercise of compassion on the job, but there is certainly something about the exercise of good judgement.

I'm sure the officer in question has heard his share of lame excuses for speeding, but he would by my experience have the discretion of escorting her to the hospital and issuing a citation at that location where she could have been with her father.

Driving thirty miles over the speed limit probably constitutes reckless driving and is not to be taken lightly, but compassion or not there are mitigating circumstances that call for special measures and I think this was one of them.

Any cop that makes such a statement is probably too concrete to make wise decisions in serious life threatening situations where flexibility of thought is paramount.

[edit on 2007/5/5 by GradyPhilpott]

You have to ask yourself in situations like this. where is the common sence? The cop and the woman. The cop took a long time to call it in (from my frequent pull overs) and the woman WhyTF did she drive off.

How did the video become public?

If the cop had just let her go and the video had become public there would have been all sorts of trouble "Oh the crying white girl dosen't get a ticket!"

Both the cop and the woman should be charged with stupidity.

The woman should not have been speeding, no matter the reason, and she should never have driven off. That was asking for it.

The cop should have been able to see the distress the woman was in and taken a more sensible action. Also he was a little to eager to give her the beat down, a little uncalled for IMO

BUT - We do not know the area and the type of people this cop has to deal with day in and day out. he has a job to do and we should be thankful that someone is there to do it. if she turns out to be a strawberry meth dealer the cops a hero, if her old man made it to the hospital and passed away he's the bad guy.

Catch 22

I first heard this story on TV (cnn or msnbc) when it was brand new. At that time, I thought it was strange, but I didn't realize that she had "attempted to flee". You can't do that.

Secondly, they quoted her (Langston) as saying that the officer did the right thing. She approved and understood his behavior in reaction to her behavior. She wasn't upset with the officer's behavior at all! I can't find that part of the story now, of course.

It seems to me that she didn't become outraged until her husband told her how to feel...

I agree it could have been a lot smoother and it didn't have to go down like that, but I think this story has been sensationalized by the media.

I can understand Langston's hurry; but the fact is she broke the law. I can understand the deputy's reluctance to believe her but wouldn't have been just as easy to escort her to the ER and then give her the ticket? Both individuals acted inappropreately. The deputy's punishment was excessive given the circumstances; I would think some additional training would have been sufficent.

[edit on 5-5-2007 by gallopinghordes]

Not good cop, not bad cop, just robot cop. The cop who can not think outside of his procedural rule book. The cop who will one day give us a reason to use robots.

Since according to him, she had just past the emergency room, he could have just driven her there and written the ticket there. Since they were that close he could have checked out the story, it's clear she did not know the area.

She should not have been speeding, but under the circumstances, I don't think she was thinking. He dad called to say he was having a heart attack, she just wanted to get to him.

The cop should have driven behind her and escorted her to the hospital, since they were so close. He could then have verified her story, given her the ticket, and then everyone called it a night. Also a bonus if her dad had not made it to the hospital, he could have helped save a life.

Oh well. He was not being a good cop or a bad cop, he was being a robot, and I think one more reason we might use them instead of humans in the future.

It's pretty plain that both individuals could've and should've used better judgement. I don't believe he's a bad cop and she certainly isn't a criminal both should've engaged their brains and acted with a little more foresight.

I posted a thread recently whereby two canoeists that retrieved the body of a suicide victim from a river were cited for not wearing a life vest.

This is similar.

Sometimes, a cop thinks his thunder is being stolen, and he feels a need to re-assert his authority. So he does something like these cops did.

It's a case of insecurity, and it happens to teachers, cooks, ticket takers, and all of us at one time or another.

It's very annoying when it does happen, especially when it happens to you.

But some people cannot lighten up their attitude, and there's nothing you can do about it except go with the flow.

jso,

I remember that thread. You're right, it's a very similar situation.

In this instance, had the cop exercised a tiny bit of compassion, the woman never would have panicked. The cop could have written the ticket inside the hospital.

She was the only one who truly broke the rules.
The cop didn't break ANY rules. Maybe a commandment, but no rules.

She should feel stupid, he should feel like a jerk.

The Police's job is to protect and take action when someone breaks the law. Even though she had a good reason to be speeding it was still breaking the law and putting people at risk as well. So the I don't know if the cop is a good one, or a bad one from this incident. All I can tell is that he was doing his job as a Police Officer.

And if he did let the woman go free I bet many others would try and take advantage of them and make up sob stories to get out of a ticket. If every single person on this planet was 100% honest, it wouldn't be a huge deal to let someone go if a situation like that happened, but we aren't honest, so the honest ones will encounter things like this. Thats how it is I guess.

enjoies05

In this case, he didn't even have to let her go free.
They were at the hospital..All he had to do was take it inside.

Which, I hope, is what he is thinking now. "I should have taken it inside"

If I had a cop "lighting me up" from behind, I might very well miss the turn to the emergency room too. I doubt she was really thinking clearly. If they were that close to the hospital, he should have checked out her story BEFORE writing the ticket. It's obvious that if he'd said, "ok, you drive straight to the emergency room and I'll be right behind you", she would have done exactly that since it was what she wanted.

He could have written the ticket at any time, even the next day. She certainly did deserve a ticket. Duress is not that great an excuse for driving like an idiot.

Good Cop? Not really. Bad Cop? Well, maybe not intentionally or technically, but his attitude sucks. Even his quotes in the written report tell you how he sees the people he is supposed to be serving. That a person is lying to him is his default position. Examples like him tend to make some of the public see all cops that way, kinda like some cops see all the public the way this cop does. Funny how that works, isn't it?

From what I could tell, it kinda sounded like the other officers towards the end of the tape might have done things differently.

Just a note...

I would have definitely allowed her to go to the hospital...

I was never assigned to specific traffic duty, but I have written some tickets in my time and... well tickets are just not that important...

If I felt strongly enough about it, I would have simply sat in the waiting room and filled her ticket in, then given it to her when she came out....

Just saying,

Semper

Good Cop, Bad Cop? I say, Cop. The problems with the police is they are put in a position of judgement. Daily, they have to judge people. My belief is that, if you judge someone, you'd better be perfect, and be prepared to be judged yourself. Cops are human, yet we elevate them to almost a God like status. A sure fire way to catastrophe.
If your busting people for meth, and your doing it yourself, you are a hypocrite. We all know what God thinks about hypocrites.
Having said all that, I know a few good cops. Well, I know one good cop. No, I take that back. I don't know any good cops. But if there is a good cop, the good ole boy network will make sure to keep them in line.

Originally posted by enjoies05
And if he did let the woman go free I bet many others would try and take advantage of them and make up sob stories to get out of a ticket. If every single person on this planet was 100% honest, it wouldn't be a huge deal to let someone go if a situation like that happened, but we aren't honest, so the honest ones will encounter things like this. Thats how it is I guess.

Well, this one incident isn't going to make a difference one way or the other. People are still going to make up sob stories to try to get out of tickets.

If every single person on this planet was 100% honest, it wouldn't be a huge deal to let someone go if a situation like that happened, but we aren't honest, so the honest ones will encounter things like this. Thats how it is I guess.

If people were 100% honest, things like this wouldn't happen, because they would always be telling the truth, right? And that would eliminate the biggest variable in the equation, leaving only the cop's level of compassion to determine whether a ticket is issued right then and there.

It's because people are just people that we need to exercise compassion once in a while. A seasoned cop can pretty much tell within 30 seconds if you're trying to pull a fast one. It's up to him to guide the way the encounter will go.