Tampa police chief put on leave after flashing badge to get out of traffic stop

This afternoon, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor announced that Police Chief Mary O’Connor is now on administrative leave pending an investigation into a recent traffic stop.

The announcement comes less than a day after Creative Loafing Tampa Bay first reported on body camera footage that shows O’Connor using her status to get out of a traffic stop in Pinellas County.

“Police Chief Mary O’Connor has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into a recent traffic stop,” Castor wrote on Twitter. “Assistant Chief Lee Bercaw is serving as acting chief.”

In the video, which was obtained through public records requests, O’Connor and her husband Keith were pulled over for riding in a golf cart on a public road without a license plate on Nov. 12. She tells Pinellas County Sheriff Deputy Larry Jacoby that she is the police chief in Tampa and says, “I’m really hoping that you’ll just let us go tonight.”

Deputy Jacoby let the couple go after receiving her business card and exchanging pleasantries.

Castor’s announcement came just after TPD’s annual Christmas tree lighting party. O’Connor was not present and Deputy Chief Calvin Johnson spoke in her place, saying that no matter what the department goes through, “We are all family.”

Today, PCSO told CL that Deputy Jacoby will not be punished for letting the couple go after O’Connor told him that she was a police chief.

O’Connor’s appointment by Mayor Jane Castor was controversial due to her 1995 felony arrest for assault on a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Deputy.

Because of the past incident and a lack of transparency in Castor’s search for a police chief earlier this year, multiple city council people had concerns about O’Connor’s appointment to chief.

Councilman Bill Carlson said November’s traffic stop adds to concerns that he and other council people had about O’Connor.

“This proves that Gudes and I were correct in challenging this appointment and that Castor should have listened to the public feedback rather than bullying and attacking Council related to this vote,” he said.

O’Connor and Castor oversaw the controversial policing program “Biking while Black,” and O’Connor was a high ranking officer at TPD during the crime-free multi housing program, which targeted Black renters for eviction.

This week, O’Connor was in the news over other body camera issues after she and TPD body camera provider Axon found themselves in dispute over tracking the  controversial mute function installed by Chief O’Connor.

This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2022.