A police chief in Florida has quit after a video emerged showing her using her position to dodge a ticket for using her golf cart on the street.
Body-cam video shows Mary O’Connor and her husband being stopped last month by a Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy near the gated community where they live.
As the couple are being questioned by the officer, Mrs O’Connor identifies herself, flashes her badge and tellsthe deputy: “I’m hoping you’ll just let us go tonight.”
The mayor of Tampa said on Monday that the police chief broke ethics rules.
“Tampa Mayor Jane Castor has requested and received the resignation of Police Chief Mary O’Connor,” the mayor said in a statement released by her office, adding she violated policies on “standard of conduct” and “abuse of position or identification”.
Video released last week shows the November 12 incident in a suburb outside of Tampa, Florida’s third largest city.
In the footage the deputy is seen explaining that Mrs O’Connor and her husband were being pulled over for driving an unlicensed vehicle on the street.
Mrs O’Connor explains that she’s going to pick up food, and she doesn’t normally drive the vehicle on public streets.
After asking if the body-cam is on, she tells him, “I’m the police chief in Tampa.”
The deputy is heard telling her they have “a lot of problems with golf carts around here”.
She hands him her business card before being let go without a ticket.
In an apology last week, Mrs O’Connor said she understood how “this matter could be viewed as inappropriate, but that was certainly not my intent”.
Mayor Castor’s statement on Monday said that the police chief was expected to lead by example and be held to “high standards for ethical and professional behaviour.”
“That clearly did not happen in this case,” she said calling it “unacceptable for any public employee, and especially the city’s top law enforcement leader, to ask for special treatment because of their position.”
