A Houston police officer is facing an internal affairs investigation that could result in discipline after issuing a speeding ticket to the mother of his boss, Local 2 Investigates reported Thursday.
Shortly after the captain's mother received the ticket, officers involved in the case told Local 2 Investigates that the ticket was quietly dismissed. It was then reinstated when the formal complaint was filed, with HPD supervisors saying they wanted to avoid the appearance of favoritism if news media learned of the ticket.
3. Formal complaint is filed - so ticket is reinstated.
4. Issuing officer is under investigation from internal affairs. (Unless the issuing officer is the one that got the ticket dismissed, I wonder what he's being investigated for.)
And they don't want the appearance of favoritism?!!!!
Seems a little strange, but maybe it was the Boss' mothers birthday and there's some kind of internal policy.
Yep, must be that since it's not Mother's Day.
Based on that logical assumption, I can't see any favoritism at all. Must be a nice place to work!
"Limit politicians to two terms. One in office and one in jail!" (Borrowed from an anonymous donor)
Well, the officer is being investigated for insubordination (or failure to obey orders) if I read the article correctly. The captain allegedly ordered the officer to not write tickets outside his assigned area, and the officer supposedly did so, catching the boss's mother. The captain then wrote the formal complaint on the officer. If this is true, the officer did disobey orders and will be disciplined. The IA should investigate the officer and the complaint. As a matter of fact, it has to investigate it to clear him (and the article makes it sound like that will happen with witnesses saying he was authorized to write tickets there).
Now, if I were the officer, I would probably file a formal complaint on the captain. The two charges would be interfering with justice (dismissing the ticket) and either harassment or retaliation. Of course, with working conditions like this, I can see why the officer might not want to rock the boat any worse. And, IA may decide to investigate the captain on their own as a result of the other investigation.
I would be very interested in how the stop went down (generally, a cop would not write the mother of another cop if she said something about her son, but traffic cops also don't let a whole lot of people off) and in why the ticket was dismissed by the judge. I can see a real scandal brewing on this about hwo tickets are handled by Houston Municipal Court judges.
