“Hypocrisy does not bode well anywhere, and everyone in the law enforcement community raised a hand to abstain from anything other than integrity.”
At a time when the pendulum is swinging back the other way, and law enforcement is climbing out from chronic guff, graphic behavior, and political crusading, the police profession must maintain excellence in conduct and honor its oath. I cannot feign acceptance of anything less. Hypocrisy has no home in policing and must be evicted pronto.
Sadly, an officer-on-officer incident occurred at 4:54 a.m. in Daytona Beach, Florida on June 13, 2017, swelling the black eye that most in law enforcement do not deserve. The conduct of a Daytona Beach Police Department (DBPD) cop, identified as police Officer Rachel Ditton, went viral. In fact, the audio/video footage depicting Officer Ditton’s demeanor and brazen actions was recorded by Daytona Beach police officer Landon Edwards, whose traffic stop involved Ditton behind the wheel of her privately owned vehicle (POV), apparently late for duty.
Although he had no idea of the driver’s identity, police Officer Edwards takes note of Ditton’s car traveling at a speed beyond the posted limit. He followed her for one minute and eight seconds before initiating a traffic stop. His body-worn camera is recording the entire traffic stop. As she comes to an abrupt stop, the audio indicates Ditton yelling from her car’s open window, “Try reading your tag first before you pull someone over.” As Officer Edwards approaches Ditton’s car and positions himself where he is in-view, Ditton repeats, “Try reading your tags first before you pull someone over” followed by Officer Edwards’ “What?”
“I gotta get to work,” Ditton says. At that moment, Ditton places her arm upon the door jamb (police insignia on uniform sleeve). Officer Edwards replies “Oh…hello.”
The tag admonition was presumably implying You’d have seen I was a police officer. That was the first clue of ostensible entitlement, hypocrisy, and putrid posturing. The only dialogue directly pertinent to conducting the traffic stop was Officer Edwards qualifying, “Well, stop speeding.” It all spiraled out of control from there, and neither officer looked good at that point.
Unexpectedly, Ditton torques her steering wheel, squeals her car tires, and makes a complete about-face to get back on the road, leaving Officer Edwards standing there in the street. Ditton did not have the right to just leave, but she sure did, worsening an already deteriorating situation.
I get a headache from watching material like this.
Internal Affairs
Reportedly, Officer Edwards followed agency protocol. In the context of chain-of-command, he conferred with his direct supervisor, a police squad sergeant, and informed him of the unorthodox traffic stop involving Ditton. Audio/video footage is reviewed for context. From there, the matter is relegated to the Internal Affairs investigators, who determine the extent of the complaint, its implications, any violations of rules/regs, and submits all its findings to police command staff. Paring it down, IA found Ditton violated three agency rules/regulations regarding officer conduct.
The plate of ingredients is then set before police administration to mete out punishment.
On July 24, a “memorandum” was drafted on DBPD letterhead and issued to Ditton, declaring agency findings of police officer misconduct along with punitive measures of a three-day suspension without pay. In the DBPD findings, police executives articulated, “You then left the traffic stop, squealing your tires as you made a U-turn back toward North Atlantic Avenue not giving Officer Edwards the opportunity to complete the traffic stop or make any determination of the outcome.” I can only imagine her reply. Certainly Ditton cannot say she didn’t do it.
I suspect both officers Edwards and Ditton have egg-on-face over this twisted incident. It creates a buffet, a feast, for the cop-hating demographic, and it was served up without forethought. Both had responsibility, and one tried to exercise his role. The other seemingly flaunted her status, implying exemption from several enforceable things. Does a situation like this exacerbate the woes the police profession are always confronting? Sure it does. Could it have been avoided? Yes, in several ways, starting with observation of posted traffic signage and the civility every cop out there expects and respects.
Unfortunately, the disrepute caused by one apple so often is felt by so many. When all that was needed was a civil conversation—the kind every cop desires with anyone—a misguided feud was launched.
Blowback
The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported that one of the stipulations Daytona Beach police administration included in their post-internal affairs assessment was for Ditton to apologize to Officer Edwards. Instead, they reported, she opted to question why he went to his sergeant with the matter. In the order of things, he already tried to reason with her—on the day/time of the traffic stop.
Failing amicable recourse there, he followed chain-of-command and agency policy regarding such a matter. Whether it be sworn staff ensuring cops are providing utmost in public service or a chapter in their playbook, every law enforcement agency has a Professional Standards section.
“A 3-day suspension does not equate to doing jail time. An ordinary defendant would be looking at jail time and not a 3-day suspension.”
I remember reading about and viewing the audio/video days after this traffic stop incident. That means the body-worn camera footage was released by DBPD to, at the very least, exercise transparency and acknowledge they had a hiccup—a troubling one. Many observed the traffic stop that went awry, including criminal defense attorneys who may now invoke seeming leniency and inequality when they are in court representing clients who confront the traffic and fleeing/eluding charges.
Criminal defense attorney James Crock told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that, by Florida statute, Ditton’s actions constitute fleeing and eluding, a traffic felony. He is correct. For the media, Crock wondered, “Why is there a double standard for police for breaking the law?”
Pertaining to the punishment Ditton faces, Crock decries, “A 3-day suspension does not equate to doing jail time. An ordinary defendant would be looking at jail time and not a 3-day suspension.” Again, he is not wrong in his assessment. Crock opined that the Ditton case should have been referred to the State Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Ultimately, Ditton did apologize to Officer Edwards, admitting she was a wee bit “sassy” during the traffic stop. Sassy? I suggest that is nevertheless a notion of downplaying poor behavior and unprofessionalism, but it’s a start.
One particular Facebook commenter on the Palm Beach Post feed said, “There should be no ‘professional courtesy’ for city, county and state officials. It just makes more of a mockery of the system. Either everyone is equal, otherwise it’s right out-and-out favoritism and discrimination.”
Many other social media comments entail variations on the theme “Pigs think they’re above the law!” The blowback is akin to twelve steps back in terms of advancing the fine work accomplished in American policing.
It serves only to stir a pot the police profession has been trying to distill into equitable portions.
Workin’ On It
San Antonio police chief William McManus decried recent instances whereby cops are persistently dismissed, ridiculed, condemned and outright targeted for merely wearing a police uniform. Resoundingly, Chief McManus’s statement echoed “sick of the police haters,” and I know of no one who disagrees.
“I’m angry at the police haters. I’m sick of the police haters. We protect them. We defend them. And they give us a big F.U. And I’m sick of it,” McManus said in early July.
I parrot that same message (mostly) with just cause, despite my bias as a retired policeman.
Many back the blue and read the latest anti-cop rhetoric on sites such as Enough is Enough and Blue Lives Matter. I subscribe to those and many more. I do not subscribe to any police official whose behavior mimics anything like what we see in this DBPD video illustrating snipes from one cop to another, the latter doing his duty. Or at least trying to.
Hypocrisy does not bode well anywhere, and everyone in the law enforcement community raised a hand to abstain from anything other than integrity. We can do better, much better. Perfection is a work in progress. However, decency, respect, grace and humility will always prevail.
Do you think Ditton’s punishment fit the bill?
