Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
Recently I noticed that a lot of comments about one article centered around professional courtesy. The article was about an officer who stopped a car/driver for drunk driving only to find the driver was a fellow police officer. Through the course of events the drunk driving off-duty cop somehow ended up in the on-duty cop's K9 cage. Of course, this is "news". But all the comments about professional courtesy got me thinking (yeah, I do that on occasion).
I think that professional courtesy is something many of us on the job, or retired from it, just assume is a reality. When I was working the street there were certain groups of people I extended a level of leniency to because I felt either I or society as a whole owed them that as a sign of appreciation. Those groups, for me, included cops, firemen, doctors, nurses and military service-members. Those folks would only get a citation from me if either 1) what they did was way out of hand, or 2) they just couldn't find it within themselves to show me common courtesy when I pulled them over.
Obviously what each of us considers "way out of hand" differs. It is an entirely subjective judgment we make based on our personal and professional values, training and experience. The article in question was about an off-duty officer who was driving while under the influence, so I'll use experiences from my past to demonstrate my outlook / point.
Early in my career, regularly on Saturday night, "choir practice" was held in my jurisdiction. I attended my fair share but I'm a light weight drinker so I rarely consumed even one beer much less enough to get intoxicated. On more than one occasion I was working when choir practice was held and would check on my brother and sister officers as they were straggling out. I took more than one set of keys and had people sleeping in their cars (or sometimes the fire station if it was too cold out). During one of those instances I was told I should extend professional courtesy to my fellow officers and just let them drive home. After all, they weren't TOO drunk. I viewed it the other way around: allowing them to risk their own life and the lives of others would have been unprofessional of me. Certainly, such a lack of concern for their well-being would be discourteous.
On another occasion I pulled over a fireman for speeding. After approaching and evaluating during initial contact I found out he was on his way home from a party and had been drinking. A PBT showed that his blood alcohol content level was border line for legal intoxication. He had been polite and respectful throughout our encounter and readily admitted he probably should have called his wife for a ride rather than trying to drive home. I called his wife, parked his car and kept the keys until the next day. We had both displayed courtesy and respected each others profession. "Professional courtesy" at its finest.
As a retired officer I would not
expect to receive professional courtesy. I would hope for it and I would certainly be courteous if I got pulled over. I mean, that officer isn't pulling me over randomly because he's bored. Either I committed a violation or there's an equipment defect on my vehicle or something else. He (or she) has
some good reason for stopping me. The least I can do is be polite, cooperative and respectful and hope he does the same. If I get a citation,
I earned it and he's simply doing his job.
Do I think it would suck for one cop to give another cop (even a retired one) a ticket? Yep I do, but that takes me back to my earlier statement about "way out of hand". Myabe
way out of hand for him is five MPH over the speed limit. Whatever his
way out of hand is governs the tone of the stop for him - and every driver he stops. If the driver he's pulled over is a fellow officer then that fellow officer also has a personal concept of
way out of hand. When the two concepts are different, conflict can occur.
What every off-duty and retired cop needs to remember is this: you wouldn't have gotten stopped if you hadn't given that officer a reason to stop you.
what every on-duty cop needs to remember is that we're all brothers and sisters on the same team in a war against crime or we are veteran survivors of that war still worthy of respect. We will act different than the civilians because we are not scared or uncertain. 99% of the time we know exactly why we're being stopped and how everything is going to proceed. During the other 1% we should endeavor not to create a news event that is embarassing to 100% of us. Ya' think?
Stay safe.
