No matter what a person’s place in life is, he or she deserves to be treated the same way by law enforcement and the legal system as a whole. Doubts exist about whether that is actually the case in Denver and throughout the country, but equal treatment is certainly an ideal. For example, a recent Denver case has some speculating that police officers let each other get away with breaking the law.
Last year, a man was pulled over and arrested by local officers for suspicion of drunk driving. It turned out that he was an off-duty Denver police officer, a fact that apparently led him to believe that he would get away with any crime he potentially committed. The arresting officers ignored the DUI suspect’s pleas to “take care of him,” and the suspect was ultimately charged with driving drunk.
According to news reports, one of the arresting officers at the scene of the Colorado arrest used an iPhone to record parts of the incident. Why he or she did that is undisclosed, but that action certainly created drama for the off-duty officer who was arrested in this case.
The recording captures the suspect asking the officers to let him off the hook and bring him home. At least one official from the Denver office of Independent Monitor thinks that beyond a DUI, the officer should have been charged further because he tried to use his position on the force to his legal advantage.
Such a law doesn’t exist in Denver at this point, so the officer was only sentenced for the DUI – his first Colorado offense. He was sentenced to time at home with electronic monitoring, required to complete community service and temporarily suspended from his job.
Do you think that there should be a special law against law enforcement officials who try to use their positions to get out of trouble?
Source
9News.com: “You suck: ‘DPD officer to Siverthorne officer during DUI arrest,” Jessica Zartler, 22 Jul. 2011