Alright, Officer Powell showed no compassion to Ryan Moats and his wife but he did his job. Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle has already passed judgement on Officer Powell. . For all who worked in Law Enforcement you know a quota exists for traffic citations . I got rated down on my annual evaluations because I did not "effectively enforce traffic laws"(Bullshit). Beinig a cop now seems less and less attractive. I think Officer Powell is screwed.

Look at the dashboard camera:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-k2d9aP75A

damn!

Im sorry, but i have to put my two cents out there on this one. Simply, this officer seems to be a punk. "I can do this, I can do that, I can tow this...." blah, blah, blah.... Moats was not being resistive, he was not being a jerk, he was in a bad situation and was trying to explain to the officer what was going on....the officer did not attempt to help or resolve the situation at all, he simply wanted to be the badass by declaring everything that "he could do"

Prime example of a rookie officer that doesnt know how to think outside the box, and thinks the badge makes him above and better than everyone else. The chief was right to do what he did, i support the chief....rookie should be sent to some more classes.......

A simple resolution to this stop would have been to take the drivers license and registration from Moats, follow Moats into the hospital to verify the situation, and then after Moats has calmed his family and done what was necessary the officer could have continued to issue the citation, explain that he was sorry for Moats loss, however, he was wreckless...speeding.....whatever the case may be, and caution him against it in the future.

lol, now i will sit back and watch everyone jump my ass!

Brian

Protectoro2001, you are right. Powell, is not a rookie. He has over 3 years on the job. So he won't be able to use the rookie defense. Police Work has changed a lot in the last 20 years. Society expects a lot from our cops. Sometimes a bit too much is expected from the police. The days of chasing crooks and enforcing the law are over. Today Cops have to be more compassionate, kind, understanding, counsel people, enforce the laws, be a social worker, juvenile counselor, marriage counselor, and also write two tickets a day and don't make any mistakes. Powell could have handled it exactly like the way you described it. But he didn't and it was caught on dashboard camera. I don't think Powell should lose his job over this. But from looking at Chief Kunkle's body language I think he will try and fire Powell.

Three Police Departments and thirty five years as a Cop and I never ran into a quota system for citations or arrests. If your job is to prevent traffic collisions and you have information as to where, when and the types of violations that are causing accidents, it is not a difficult job to do. If an Officer is not self-motivated he/she should not ask to work the Traffic Bureau. I spent two and a half years as a Traffic Officer and they let me write as many tickets as I wanted.

In my experience, when an Officer complains about quotas it is because they have been kicking back and not doing the job. Officers with below average statistics at the end of the month for his/her shift, whether it be arrests, citations, FI cards or self-initiated calls get the prod from their Sergeant. Most Officers are in that self-motivated catagory or they wouldn't be in the business. For the rest, that's why God made Supervisors.

The good news is that with the implementation of Community Policing (CP), the focus has moved from statistics to service delivery. Yep, the Officers still make arrests and write tickets, but the emphasis is now on client service, problem solving and building community partnerships. Of course, the area you work will dictate how much time you spend running from crime to crime and how much time you are able to devote to CP. Is the job a challenge, you bet it is and that's one of the great things about being a Cop. My hat is off to all those still in the trenches.

Ive only been doing this job a little over 8 years and been through 3 departments as well, and Ive seen nothing BUT quotas...only they were disguised as "productivity" statistics. One department required the same amount of traffic stops for the deep night officers as the day officers....REALLY!?
You have to watch these small town agencies here in TX. I am with a great dept. now that allows our "night stalkers" to spend some time in the neighborhoods, and walking busineses. Large citation numbers are frowned on for the night crews. And I do my job without "prodding" from the Brass, so that is not an issue here.
As for the video.....No common sense or professionalism on the part of the officer. Hate to "arm-chair, quarterback" the call, but he was a little over-zealous on that one.

Disgraceful and unprofessional behavior by the Police Officer.

H

I agree he was a little over zealous but I have seen this happen before in the last 18 yrs. Everyone we stop has an excuse and I have heard some whoppers over the years. The problem is we do not have time or are not allowed to do our job as we once did. I know if this happend at my agency and he would have went to the hospital to check the story he would have got his ass jumped for leaving his zone car for unauthorized follow up. The GPS would have showed his car parked at the hospital with no call for service there and his time response to any pending calls would show him stationary at an unauthorized location. The other problem we have now is that everything is on video if we stop someone and don't cite them we have to do paperwork as to why we did not cite them...I hear it all the time "if there is enough PC to stop them then there is enough for a cite"
its BS, there is no officer discretion anymore. As for qouta/stats hell yes we have them, we have to have so many "citizen contacts" per shift we have to account for every min of our shift and between GPS, car cams and logs its hard to do any follow up. Usually dispatch is calling for you to break away and handle another call as soon as you get into something. I am thankful all I do anymore is SWAT and warrants these patrol guys today have their hands full. Back when I worked uniform patrol it was not uncommon to have 6 or more calls pending when you would go in service. Back then we did not have to deal with GPS and car cams were new. I have seen a lot of guys get frustrated over the way things are now and this guy strikes me as one of those. He probably thought here is just another guy lying to him as they often do. I do not agree with it but I see it happen all the time.