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A Tampa Police Department SUV cruiser.
The Tampa Police Department recently admitted that its DUI squad has made several arrests when drivers blew beneath the legal alcohol limit, and one officer accused his supervisor of imposing DUI arrest quotas.
At Tampa's Citizens Review Board (CRB) meeting on June 28, a TPD DUI squad officer accused his supervisor Sergeant Anthony Portman of "destroying morale" by imposing quotas on the squad, along with other questionable behavior.
Corporal Katie Thanasas told the CRB that a subordinate police officer on the squad spoke up against Portman last year.
"On February 9 2021, Master Patrol Officer [Michael] Lyon authored an email to his lieutenant expressing concern that his supervisor Sergeant Anthony Portman was destroying morale on the DUI squad and undermining former Chief Dugan's authority," Thanasas told the CRB. "Specifically officer Lyon alleged Sergeant Portman imposed quotas on members of the DUI squad."
Portman was recently reprimanded by TPD for several violations when he gossiped and conspired against former Chief Dugan because he didn't approve of the 2021 TPD mask mandates. He was also one of the officers whose negligent behavior led to the death of Arthur Green Jr. while he was having a diabetic emergency. After an eight year lawsuit, the family recently settled with the city and changed TPD use of force policy because of the incident.
He's also the husband of Police Benevolent Association President Darla Portman, according to an inside source.
During questioning, Thanasas admitted to the CRB that officers on Portman's DUI squad have participated in a series of "low blow" arrests, when a person blows beneath the .08 legal limit.
"In a statement, they talked about [an officer] having a series of low blow arrests, so let me just understand this," said CRB member Darryl Reyes. "If I'm wrong, please correct me, is that the situation where the person technically blows under the legal limit, so they would otherwise be legal, but then there are other behavior in the discretionary judgment of the officer indicates they're still impaired?"
"Yes, that's the way it was explained to me," Thanasas replied. "I think if you may have read the transcripts, I learned a little bit more about it throughout this investigation, that a low blow is anything under .08. And like you said, it could be narcotics, it could be another reason."
The problem with this type of arrest is that not all police officers are experts on when someone is on drugs or not, and with alleged DUI arrest quotas being presented within TPD, a person suspected of DUI can't be sure that they're not falling victim to problematic police practices.
To become termed a "Drug Recognition Expert" by law enforcement agencies, an officer has to take an 80-hour course that helps them recognize signs of drug impairment.
But the term "expert" is under contention in this situation.
"Although some law enforcement officers use the term 'Drug Recognition Expert,' the courts often prohibit the word 'expert' from being used in front of the jury and instead require everyone to use the word 'evaluator' or the phrase 'Drug Recognition Evaluator'," Tampa's Sammis Law Firm
says on their website.
Florida law says "A traffic enforcement agency may not establish a traffic citation quota," but it's not clear that the same applies to DUI arrests. Still,
the Miami New Times points out that, "Arrest quotas are arguably unconstitutional because they could encourage cops to make arrests based on numbers (or even worse, incentives) rather than probable cause."
Thanasas said that other officers on the DUI squad backed up their supervisor Portman, saying that there wasn't a quota for the officers.
TPD did not respond to request for comment, but CL made multiple records requests into the situation, and will update this story if those requests are fulfilled.
During the meeting, it was also revealed that Portman and another supervising officer were upset about TPD's mask policy in February of 2021 when COVID rates spiked.
Thanasas also told the CRB that Portman and others used their time on the job to try to find evidence of the former chief not wearing a mask. They found an old photo of Dugan posing with a Santa Claus and said that he should "write himself up" for not wearing a mask in that situation.
The officers also used police video cameras and communicated their disapproval about the mask mandate and gossip about Dugan through police computers.
Portman and the other supervising officer were reprimanded for this behavior for violation of three policies: Criticism/Gossip, Departmental Property Restriction Use and Supervisor Responsibility.
Several members of the CRB questioned why the commanding officers were not also found in violation of "Attentiveness to Duty" which requires officers to be focused on their shift, but TPD said that a review couldn't prove that the behavior distracted the commanding officers from their jobs.