Courtesy

How far does an officer have to draw a line, when providing professional courtesy towards another officers family member ? Is the line that you draw long enough ? Did you do everything within your power, to insure that everything was taken care of properly ? To who do we extend that courtesy to. An officers wife or husband, sister or brother, mother or father. Do we need to extend the same courtesy or draw that same line for a fellow officers cousin or uncle ? I don’t think that there is any written rule that says we have to extend any courtesy to any ones family member. But, it the same breath, if one of your family members, being your mother, father, sister or brother were ever in a pinch, I think that you would hope, that the officer that was doing his or her job, would have enough respect and pride to extend you the courtesy of at least a phone call. (Something in the form of - Hay, I have your family member down here, this is what he did, what would your like me to do.) or ( Hay, I have your family member down here, this is what they did, this is what I tried to do, I have to take them in, can you meet me.) SOMETHING !!!!

The reason I bring this up is because on Saturday morning May 31, 2008 at around 0200 hrs., there was a white male in the downtown Cape Coral area at a night club called THE PEARL. The club was letting out, when the intoxicated w/m noticed that his cell phone was missing. As he strolled over to the vehicle that he came in, he then noticed that the person he came with, was also missing. In an attempted to get back into the club to find his cell phone, the bouncers at the door, refused him to enter. Again being that he was intoxicated, he started to explain to the bouncer in a slurred voice, that he needed to find his cell phone that he lost in the club, in order to call for a ride home.

The bouncer still refused to let him in. At that time the w/m noticed that there was an CCPD officer in the parking lot. He strolled over to the officer and asked if he would help him get back into the club so that he can find his cell phone. The officer told him to keep walking. As the intoxicated w/m continued to plea his case he attempted to asked the officer to contact his sister, who was on duty with the with another local agency, he tried to explain that he was were visiting and that all the local numbers he had for his family was in the phone. He was unable to take and taxi or hitch a ride because he didn’t know the address to his sisters house. The response that he got from the officer was, go across the F*$&KING street and look for a sheriffs car, and maybe they will F&$^KING help you.

By then two other CCPD officers arrived. Now the intoxicated w/m was being challenged into a pair of handcuffs. The officers started to curse at him, belittle him and basically persuade him into a loss/loss situation. After the officers enticed the w/m enough that handcuffs were put on him and his head was slammed into the side of the car, the verbal abuse got worse. The now transporting officer continued to escalate the w/m’s temper while enroute to LCJ. The verbal and threatening attack that the transporting officer started set up the scene for LCSO intake to have several deputies waiting for their arrival in the LCJ sally port.

Before I go any further, just by the description of the following chain of events, all officers are guilty of finding a drunk guy at a club, asking him to leave, and when all else fails, enticing the guy to do something stupid so that we can throw him in jail. In this case did that happen ? Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that it did. Am I guilt of doing it myself, Of course !!! But the one thing that changes everything, is that this particular w/m was the brother of another officer, and that the confrontation started after he had asked the CCPD officer for HELP IN CONTACTING HIS SISTER, WHO WAS ON DUTY !!! Once the relationship of the w/m was established, play time should have been over. The courtesy train should have started right then and there. At least some type of effort could have been put forward. A phone call to that agencies dispatch, a call to a friend that you may have in that agency .. .. .. SOMETHING. Even if the w/m had to be placed into custody, still a phone call could have been made. JUST THINK ABOUT IT, IF IT WERE YOUR FAMILY MEMBER, WOULD YOU EXPECT A THE SAME ?

But the fun didn’t stop, in fact it continued all the way to the jail. The green gang was waiting for him when he arrived. Again, with the enticing help of the transporting CCPD officer, he helped the LCSO deputies make the decision to give him an OC bath. This particular CCPD officer still continued to provoke the w/m even after he was sprayed the first time and was inside a locked cell.

Now I am not defending the w/m because simply, I was not there. But, I can say that I have been put in that situation many of times. Many of times I have responded to a drunken disorderly call or have come across some ass that just doesn’t get it. I have come across guys that are completely out of control and I have come across guys that just don’t know when to shut there mouths. I this case, I can bet that the w/m fit into the category of “not knowing when to shut his mouth.” But I go back to the first paragraph of this post, when and were do we draw the line with family, when it comes to professional courtesy. I would like to think that a brother or a sister of another officer would qualify.

In this case there was no professional courtesy given at all !! Even after the w/m was brought into the jail, sprayed and the officer left and went on his merry way, there was no phone call made to the w/m’s sister until about 8 hours after he was already inside, and that was made from someone other then a CCPD officer.

We have all heard the story about “we have enough crap to worry about out on the street with the every day citizens, we need to take care of our own etc, etc, etc, etc . . . . “ The problem is that the southwest Florida public safety academy doesn’t teach ethics, when it came to another police officer and their families. I guess with the new format the class that teaches officers to “DO THE RIGHT THING”, got tossed out the window. The other problem is we don’t police our own for making a screwed-up decision.

Although this experience hit home for me personally, I still will go out on the street and do my job. If tomorrow I were to stop the brother, sister, mother or father of a Cape Coral Police Officer, I still would give them the same professional courtesy, that I hope, another officer would give me, EVEN THOUGH, I THIS CASE, NO COURTESY WAS GIVEN TO THAT W/M AND HIS SISTER.

I hope that everyone understands this post and can some how relate to it. Somewhere, someplace a family member of yours was stopped or confronted by a police officer. I know that they, because of your shield, where given a courtesy. I hope that whoever reads this, has enough courage to confront the officer that made this arrest and transported him to the jail. I would hope that when it comes time for this case to go before a judge, or sometime sooner then that, that the officer who didn’t show their fellow officer any courtesy on the scene, will step forward and do the right thing.

It’s a small world guys. The people that we hurt today, may be the same people you need help from tomorrow. There are many people out there to arrest, lets not make a circus actout of someone who is related to one of our own.

Thanks and stay safe.

Your grammar needs work. It was hard to read due to all the errors.

Very well said

With respect to the original poster; maybe your brother sugar coated things and twisted what actually happened to make himself appear to be the "victim". Not to mention the fact your brother was intoxicated and most likely cant remember what actually took place. Think about it. How many times have we heard from a suspect about how he was "wronged" by the cops? More times than not this person who claimes he was "wronged" is full of it.

You werent there (and neither was I) and we dont know exactly what happened. Let me just say that I am huge on extending professional cortouseys, but maybe there is more to this story than what your intoxicated brother told you. If the sequence of events you described is exactly how things happened, then I would say things should NEVER have gone as far as they did. With that being said, if I have some drunk person causing a scene because he is PO'ed about his cell phone and talking to me like im a chump, you better believe things will go down hill. Even if you are the brother of a fellow cop.

Say for instance my brother went up to you and said something like "Hey cop, why dont you do your job and get my F***in cell phone"? Would you be at all inclined to help my brother? I would think not.

I am just speculating but I have been around long enough to know that there is always three sides to every stroy. My point is that maybe this cop should have treated the situation differently...or maybe your brother is telling an altered story and was wrong.

Thanks for the reply and yes, I would naïve if I didn’t take into consideration that this brother may or may not have sugar coated his story. You are absolutely correct, when you say that there are always three sides to every story. But, the arrest and the chain of events that happened after the arrest may and could have been avoided, by one simple phone call.

I’m not bringing up this subject in the defense of this brother, I’m bringing it up because I am sick-and-tired of hearing about how other cops (particularly in the SWFL area) have no respect or loyalty to their own. Everyday I hear a story about FHP handing out tickets to other cops. I hear about FMPD muscling around off duty cops downtown. I hear about CCPD arresting family members for having a few to many.

At some point in every officers life, we all went to an interview before we were hired. In that interview you may have been asked “Why you wanted to be a police officer.” The most common response to that question is “because you like the excitement that it brings” or “because you wanted to join a BROTHERHOOD“. It seems that once some people become part of the brotherhood, they start to forget exactly what it means.

The answer to your question about YOUR BROTHER, is this. . . . . . . .No, I may not have helped him and yes, if he was such a problem, I may have cuffed him and put him inside my car. But, once he made it clear that his brother, sister, father or mother was a police officer, here in the area, you can bet that a phone call would have been made. In my career, I have never brought another cop or a member of another cops family to jail, without giving that officer the courtesy and respect of a phone call. And in all cases, with the exception of one, the problem was solved after the call was made. In the one exception, the officers brother who was brought, was the brother of my partner, and he made the decision.

Everyday, we are out there and have to make decisions that can change the course of a persons life. Hell, sometimes we make decisions that can change the course of our own lives. But, everyone at some point in their life needs a little help for something stupid they may have done. In this case, this brother was just stupid. He didn’t commit murder, robbery or a burglary. He didn’t fight, kick, punch or spit. He was just drunk and stupid, with a big mouth. Every night we go down to our local bars at closing and we look for the first jerk to stick their foot in their month and say something stupid, so that we can throw them in the county for the night. THIS JERK JUST HAPPENED TO BE PART OF THE INNER CIRCLE WE ALL CALL “THE BROTHERHOOD”

SOMETIMES, WE ALL JUST NEED TO “DO THE RIGHT THING” !!! Remember, the cop you piss off today, may be the same cop who saves your life tomorrow.

Stay SAFE

I tend to believe that the intx brother was more a problem than the sister knows. But, its the cops fault that he got drunk and lost his junk and then spouted junk to everyone.

If this was the same guy that I saw there and I was his relative and a cop I'd be pissed at him not the cops. What an fool he was

I believe you answered your own question, when he didn't shut his mouth, that is where the line was obviously drawn.

I am a firm believer in professional courtesy, it is something that is given not taken. How can you expect the officer to go out of his way for your family member, when your relative didn't show him any courtesy?

Having lived in Cape Coral for over 15 yrs i can tell you that nothing our officers do surprises me anymore. After the horror stories i've heard in the locals news, as well as first hand accounts i've witnessed, I believe the original poster has gotten the real story about what happened. I'd suggest any members of the LCSO, FMPD etc. show CCPD officers the same level of disrespect that they do when dealing with another officers loved ones. They certainly deserve it.

Most of the CCPD force act like arrogant jerks who think they're unaccountable, and for the most part they are. It's a sad situation for the few good officers on the force who have to live with the (well deserved) bad reputation the CCPD has earned for itself.

CCPD officers have shown me nothing but professionalism when I've been stopped. I will say that I've been pulled over more in the past year in the Cape than I have anywhere else my entire life. Everytime I was stopped, I was treated with professionalism and courtesy. Once I revealed that I was on the job, we said our goodbye's and that was that. I couldn't ask for more pro courtesy than was given. Thanks Guys!

I appologize for not reading this sooner, as I am the first officer who met the young man in question that night. I am a firm believer in professional courtesy and fully support everything said in the original post. That being said, I can assure you that all the facts were not given. What the w/m failed to tell his sister, was that he rufused to give us her name so we could call her. It was also not mentioned that he was charged with disorderly intox, and not battery LEO despite spitting on the officer, before he was handcuffed. I was told by the arresting / transporting officer, that one of the deputies at the jail knew the w/m and begged him to calm down prior to spraying him.

I did everything I could do to NOT arrest this guy that night. If the same thing happened tonight, I would arrest my own brother if he acted the way this guy did.

Caperesident seems to have a negative opinion of everything, what do you do for a living besides bash CCPD?

Everybody who reads this that is actually a recently hired LEO (within the past 5 years)may understand where I am coming from in this response.

I have dedicated my whole life to being a cop. I avoided the "bad" people in High School to keep my image untarnished. I avoided all the parties and hangouts; instead spending my time helping with community events and volunteering, not just to "build my resume" but more of because that is what I loved doing (hence my dream of becoming a cop). I've endured "sh#**y" jobs, because I knew that a stable employment background was something that the recruiters would look at. I did everything possible to achieve a college degree. Since my family was not that well off, I knew that I would depend on grants, scholarships, and loans to get my degree. I worked full-time, while going to school full-time. When studies started getting overwhelming, I had to put school off to a part-time status since the bills still needed to be paid. I am in no way trying to "toot my own horn", but merely setting a background for my overall point (keep reading, it will come). I am not perfect so I did not get hired at the first agency that I had applied. I had to apply at dozens of agencies and process with almost a dozen before I got my job in LE.

The point is (thank god we got to it) there are only certain risks I will take that may cost me my job. Obviously, by taking this job, I have made the decision that I will give my life for the job and for others. In my opinion, there is no better way to die than to die for another or others. And in general, my brothers and sisters would do the same for me. I would give my life for any person that I work with. However, I would only give up my job for a small percentage of those. And to carry it on to a family member, I don't know who I would give my job up for.

We all should know by now that anything we do these days can easily cost us our jobs and in turn affect our families. We are all adult enough to make decisions based on the facts and circumstances given. There may be a situation where I feel that I can do something one way but in another situation I feel that I have to do it differently. I would like to think that I would have shown the "professional courtesy" for the family member but I do not know the circumstances. In line with what I was stating previously, I'm sure that the Officer's involved had based their decisions on the circumstances at hand. Maybe the Officer's felt as though that if they had done things differently it may cost them their job. I cannot fault the officers for that. Or maybe I am completely wrong, and the decision was made because the Officers were a total pricks. The point is (another point????) we were not in their shoes so we cannot know for certain the circumstances.

Okay, I'm done. I hope that everybody stays safe out there.

Courtesy
As a spouse of an officer, I certainly can understand the difficulties our men and women face on the street. However, CCPD has the worst reputation and it is hard to believe anything they say after all the negativity we've heard and seen first hand. I'm sure there are a few good men and women, but I'm afraid they are far out numbered. When is someone going to go in there and do something with that department? They are a disgrace to our city.
Concerned Citizen