Trooper who pulled gun on speeding cop had ticketed another Miami officer earlier

From Sun-Sentinel.com

In late September, after 12 years as a Broward traffic magistrate, Tom Wich encountered something he had never seen before: a police officer standing before him as a defendant in a speeding case.

"I'll be honest with you," Wich told me Friday. "It was a first."

The defendant, a Miami police officer, was fined for speeding with his civilian car while driving off-duty in Deerfield Beach.

The Florida Highway Patrol trooper who wrote him up: Donna Jane Watts.

The same Donna Jane Watts who famously pursued and detained another speeding Miami officer, Fausto Lopez, a few weeks later on the Florida Turnpike in Hollywood. Watts said Lopez weaved through traffic in his cruiser at 120 mph, and cited him for misdemeanor reckless driving. Lopez's excuse: He was late for an off-duty detail at a private school in Coconut Creek.

That Oct. 11 incident, in which Watts approached Lopez with her gun drawn and handcuffed him, became national news with the release of images and audio from her dashboard camera last week.

"If I was a road deputy, my first reaction if I saw a cruiser going that fast would be, 'Somebody stole a police car,' " said Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti. He said Watts' approach with a gun was appropriate.

In some law-enforcement circles, Watts is being pilloried for breaking the code that cops don't cite other cops.

But I think she should be saluted for doing her job, and correctly holding police to the same standards as the rest of us. If anything, she (or her superiors) went easy on Lopez; a civilian might have been charged with felony fleeing and eluding.

"We can't be hypocritical," Lamberti said. "We can't hold motorists accountable and not abide by the same rules."

When those sworn to enforce the law act like they're above the law, we're in trouble.

It goes for the little things like speeding, and it goes for the big things, like the two Fort Lauderdale officers charged with multiple felonies including kidnapping, racketeering and theft last week. Billy Koepke and Brian Dodge, members of the street crimes unit, are accused of shaking down criminal suspects and stealing drugs and cash.

The common thread is arrogance.

They carry guns, have the power to arrest and put their lives on the line every day to protect us, but that doesn't give police the right to thumb their noses at the law — and us.

Most cops are honest and dedicated. But when police chip away at the law, expecting to get special treatment or "professional courtesy" from colleagues when they flout small stuff, it's inevitable that credibility, trust and respect take a hit. If police think they have a license to speed, might they also fudge a report, plant evidence, lie on the witness stand?

Lopez's actions showed contempt for others on the road.

"Ma'am, with all due respect," a shocked Lopez said after Watts handcuffed him.

"You don't respect me sir," Watts shot back. "You don't respect these people out here."

More power to her.