Deputies Shot and Bulletproof Vest Saves the Day!

This afternoon I was at work in my Seminole Community College office working on Police Academy Instructor evaluations when I got a call from Central Florida News 13 Assistant News Director Rudy Murietta that made my heart stop. Not watching the news or checking online news site, I was unaware that two Orange County deputy sheriffs had been shot not far from Disneyworld. One was shot in the arm and the other was shot in chest.

According to footage shot of Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary at the scene, The deputy sheriff's vest appeared to have saved him. Yay! I was thrilled that the two law enforcers would be fine. And I was thrilled that the bulletproof vest got ample credit for the save and may thus encourage other officers to wear their vests everytime they are in uniform. By the way, the three bad guys were caught.

Central Florida News 13's Rudy Murietta and I discussed coming down to their downtown Orlando, FL, studios to share the miracle of the vests with the station's viewers.

Once down at the studios, I was hosted wonderfully by Rudy and his crew. I met the new news director and then we set about shooting the video package with Brad the camera dude.

Rudy wanted a standup piece on one of their studio sets and we did three takes perfecting a "show and tell" explaining the virtues of the vests to law enforcement officers (thus hopefully encouraging those officers watching to wear their vests).



I conceded that some officers eschew their vests due to them being hot and uncomfortable (especially in the Florida climate). I added though that officers do get used to the vests and they start to form fit after a while. I wore vests in New Mexico in 120 degree heat in the shade. I know first hand how hot they can get and I always wore one.

I explained how I always wore my vest in uniform even as a police chief (to me it was leadership by example). I even wore the same black shirt as the officers and my duty belt with all gear (Glock .45 duty firearm, expandable baton, radio, double magazine pouch for ammo, two handcuffs, and OC pepper spray).

In fact, I mentioned how I arranged a grant to get vests for every officer in my police department and then put into effect a policy that made it mandatory to wear the vest for all on-duty functions except as exempted by the chief of police (undercover narcotics type of work, etc.).

I was proud of that policy and feel that it is even more important in these violent times we live in that officers wear their vest. And I am proud of the deputies today in Central Florida who get to go home to their families because they were responsible enough to wear their vests.

You can view my Central Florida News 13 Bulletproof Vest show and tell below.

Traffic Stop Uproar

Well it seems that the interview that I did with Fox 35 10:00 News on the Hillsborough County, FL, Sheriff's Deputy's traffic stop caused quite a bit of controversy. The video of the interview I did is policelink.com's most watched and commented video and I've gotten quite a bit of feedback. I still believe that the deputy lost his control during the stop.

Here is the text of my response to the video's comments on policelink.com. The response was published online this morning.

This is Richard Weinblatt and I wanted to weigh in on the heated run of comments on the Hillsborough County deputy sheriff’s traffic stop.

I was pleased to see that some of the comment writers noted that I said, at the time, that not all of the facts were known. They also acknowledged the fact that the Fox 35 News piece indicated that I said both sides were wrong in how they handled the stop.

However, I was disappointed that many commenters sided with the deputy fully without consideration for the total picture. One even started to attack my background (by the way, I have had many felony arrests as a deputy in a capital county – Santa Fe County, New Mexico, a 2,500 square mile high crime county with minimal backup). The issue is not me…the issue is the traffic stop and the higher standards that we as professional law enforcers should be held.

My question is, would you want your mother, sister, or wife treated in this manner? The deputy stopped this woman at Community University Hospital where she was heading to see her heart attack-stricken father. She waited for three minutes and then yelled to the deputy that she was pulling into the hospital’s parking lot. The deputy told Hillsborough County investigators that he did not hear her. It was at that point he chased her into the lot. He was so pumped up that he tried to pull her out of the car while her foot was on the brake and the car was in gear. She also still had her seat belt on and he could not yank her out of the car at first. After he gets her out of the car, he yells not the loud repetitive verbal commands that he should; rather he taunts her out of anger saying that Good, now she won’t see her father. She hits the trunk hard enough that her feet come off the ground. Is that an example of a professional, compassionate, and under control deputy sheriff? I don’t think so.

And we wonder why the public hates us (and I’m not just talking about the drug dealers, low lifes, etc.). We are our own worst enemies in this business when we fail to use discretion properly.

That backup deputy got there in seconds when the deputy called for assistance. That same deputy, who was up the road, could have gone into the hospital entrance (which was right there) and verified the story. The deputy could have also mailed her the ticket later. That is allowed under Florida law. The deputy could have followed her a short distance into the parking lot and into the emergency room to verify the story. Any one of these options would have stopped the situation from escalating. That’s our job as professional law enforcers.

Do people lie to us, yes. Do people take off with bad agendas on their minds, yes. The woman was wrong for taking off into the hospital parking before the stop was concluded. But it is clear her anger is not directed at the deputy. She keeps pleading about her father. Hillsborough County’s own internal investigation revealed that the deputy should have controlled the situation better and not used excessive force at the end. He got five days off and the woman had all charges dropped.

We need to see the big picture of this situation. We are the professionals that are held to a higher standard of emotional control. The Fox 35 reporter said to me that maybe the deputy had a bad day. My response was, and still is, we can’t have a bad day in law enforcement. We have a bad day, lose our temper, and dirt bags get our badges and sometimes people die. We can’t lower ourselves to the standards of dirtbags and lose control. Therefore a bad day can cause us to lose control and our badge to even a dirt bag. We should not give them that satisfaction.

We are the most misunderstood of professions. It is time for us in policing to explain to the public, that we all work for, what we do and why we do it. And we must point out errors where they occur and work to fix them. An open-minded examination has to take place.

Now is not the time in law enforcement’s history to circle the wagons and protect that which cannot be fully justified. My hat is off to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office administration in Tampa for righting the wrong.

I believe that the response reflects the views of other professional law enforcement folks.

A traffic stop gone bad in Hillsborough County, Florida

Last Wednesday (May 2, 2007), I was watching the Fox 35 10:00 News with my wife when I first viewed the tape of the Hillsborough County deputy sheriff stopping the female motorists on her way to see to her heart attack stricken father in the emergency room of a Tampa, Florida, hospital. We were both very distressed to see the way the traffic stop was handled.

While the woman was wrong to take off before the stop was concluded, it was clearly the deputy's fault for the situation to escalate as it did. As I discussed with a police academy class the next day, the onus is on us as the law enforcement professionals to remain calm and de-escalate the situation. I also told them that the deputy's actions in that nationally viewed dashboard video tape will make their job when they get out of the police academy that much harder. The picture of me below is in the classroom discussing this very topic.



Towards the end of the day, while enroute to the gym to workout, I received a call on my cell phone from Fox 35 10:00 News reporter Kelly Joyce. While I had not worked with Kelly before (she got my number from ten-year station veteran reporter David Martin with whom I have worked before), I was eager to meet up with her and explain my perspective on the stop as she requested.

I met with Kelly and WOFL-TV Fox 35 photographer Steve Cegielski at 6:15 (after my workout -- I couldn't miss that) by the college's police academy police cars and we talked extensively about the situation. At that time I did not know that the Hillsborough County, FL, Sheriff's Office had concluded their investigation. The AP story came out later in the evening. The result of their investigation concluded that the deputy used excessive force. The deputy got a five day suspension and all charges against the driver were arrested.

My comments to Fox 35 would have been even stronger had I known that. As it was, I made it very clear that as law enforcers, we are not allowed to have a bad day. I told Kelly that when we have a bad day, people can die. It is up to us in law enforcement to be professional and to remain calm. I have posted the video of my Fox 35 10:00 News interview below. I hope you'll agree that professional law enforcers should be held to a higher standard.