Tampa police chief O'Connor resigns after avoiding traffic ticket

After exploiting her position to avoid receiving a ticket during a traffic stop involving a golf cart driven by her husband, the police chief of Tampa, Florida, resigned on Monday.

After an internal affairs assessment determined that Mary O'Connor had broken police department protocol during the stop on November 12 by a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy, she submitted her letter of resignation.

O'Connor identified herself as the Tampa chief, presented her badge, and said, "I'm hoping you will let us leave tonight." The stop was captured on tape by the deputy's body camera.

According to the internal affairs inquiry, the deputy did not issue a citation but rather merely a verbal warning. The golf cart lacked a license tag, which is necessary for such vehicles to operate on public streets. They had just left a restaurant, according to O'Connor's husband Keith, and they didn't generally operate the cart on public streets.

O'Connor was judged to have broken rules regarding standards of conduct and "abuse of position or identification" by the internal review.

“The Tampa Police Department has a code of conduct that includes high standards for ethical and professional behaviour that apply to every member of our police force,” Mayor Jane Castor — herself a former Tampa police chief — said in a statement requesting the resignation. “As the Chief of Police, you are not only to abide by and enforce those standards but to also lead by example. That clearly did not happen in this case.”

While a nationwide search is underway, Castor named assistant chief Lee Bercaw as acting chief. O'Connor held the position for about a year.

O'Connor apologized last week in a statement for her actions.

“In hindsight, I realize how my handling of this matter could be viewed as inappropriate, but that was certainly not my intent,” she said.

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