There is so much of Cops doing things they arrest others for and do not get any charges at all against them when they violate the law. Traffic is just the tip of it..

OFF THE WIRE

There is so much of Cops doing things they arrest others for and do not get any charges at all against them when they violate the law. Traffic is just the tip of it.

http://floridatoday.fl.newsmemory.com/?token=3be51f17d93b24dfa614692e4eecd5cf_4f392306_8cfe91 
Analysis: Cops crash cars often, rarely cited

By Rene Stutzman and Scott Powers
Orlando Sentinel
Every day, about 20 Florida police cars crash into something: another vehicle, a person, a utility pole. Every year, those crashes kill 20 people, hurt 2,400 others and cause $25 million in property dam­age, an Orlando Sentinel investigation has found.
The Sentinel analyzed five years of Florida vehi­cle- crash data — 1.6 mil­lion crashes — to deter­mine how often Florida law-enforcement officers crash while in department vehicles and how often they’re at fault. About 7,400 crashes a year involve cops. In one out of every four, they’re at least partially to blame, and they seldom are ticket­ed, the data revealed.
In fact, though average drivers receive citations if they are at fault in crashes more than 64 percent of the time, officers are cited less than 11 percent of the time. “We’re in the public­safety business, and ... I think we need to get a han­dle on it and have an under­standing of what's causing these crashes,” said Paul Sireci, president of the Florida Police Chiefs Asso­ciation and chief of the Tampa International Air­port Police Department.
After being briefed by the Sentinel on its findings, Sireci persuaded his group to launch a study of the problem.
The crashes in which officers are at least par­tially to blame are usually preventable, the data show. Cops drive too fast. They look at their on-board computers while on the road, but mostly they drive carelessly, individual crash investigators con­cluded.
The Sentinel investiga­tion looked at all Florida crashes from 2006 through 2010 that involved agency­owned vehicles and found:
» One out of every 44 crashes in Florida — or an average of nearly 7,400 a year — involved a law-­enforcement vehicle.
» Most cop crashes hap­pen while officers are sim­ply driving — not while they're chasing someone or racing to an emergency with lights and sirens de­ployed.
» Many officers crash repeatedly. In fact, 26 officers had tallied four or more crashes in that time period.
» The associated costs are staggering. During the five-year period, crashes involving officers caused more than $126 million in property damage. That doesn't include medical ex­penses or legal claims paid to people who were hurt or the families of those killed. The human toll is more difficult to tally.
Teen's tragedy
Erskin Bell Jr. was stopped at a red light on Maitland Boulevard in No­vember 2008 when Alta­monte Springs police Offi­cer Mark Maupin plowed into his car at 104 mph.
Bell was studying to be­come an air-traffic con­troller at Miami Dade Col­lege. Now, the 23-year-old cannot walk, talk or hold up his head. He requires around­the- clock nursing care and spends much of his day in a hospital bed or in a wheel­chair.
He responds to a few commands: He'll open his mouth to have his teeth brushed and unclench his fists when his stepmother asks him to relax. And he smiles when friends visit.
Maupin, who also was seriously injured, later told investigators he could not remember what hap­pened. He was not on a call and not in his patrol zone.
The officer was ticket­ed for failure to use due care and not wearing a seat belt. Maupin, now 52, paid a $1,100 fine and lost his driver’s license for 90 days. He resigned as the department prepared to fire him. The city agreed to settle with Bell's family for about $2 million. Many other officers, however, face little — or no — traffic-law penalty when they cause crashes.
In 2008, a Palm Beach County deputy fell asleep while driving 73 mph in a 50-mph zone, crossed into oncoming traffic and killed a man on his way to work. The deputy was not ticketed or charged. For 20 years, FBI ana­lyst Chuck Miller has stud­ied what kills cops in the line of duty. When he start­ed, the No. 1 killer was criminals. For the past 15 years, it has been motor ve­hicles.
Miller studies only crashes that kill cops. Nev­ertheless, his studies indi­cate that many of those crashes are avoidable, of­ten the result of an officer driving too fast or failing to buckle up. “Now,” he said, “it's more dangerous to give an officer a car than a gun.”
Local numbers
In Central Florida, the percentage of crashes caused, at least in part, by law-enforcement officers during the five-year peri­od is 30 percent, slightly higher than the statewide average of about 27 per­cent.
In Orange and six sur­rounding counties, there were 6,286 police-vehicle crashes from 2006-10. More than 1,900 were caused — at least in part — by the officer, and those crashes left 602 people in­jured and four dead.
The Central Florida agency with the most offi­cer- caused crashes in 2010 was the region’s largest, the Orange County Sher­iff’s Office, with 65 crash­es in which deputies were at least partially at fault.
Ed Soistman, a 91-year­old lay minister driving to the hospital to pray with patients in August 2010, was hit and killed by Or­ange County Deputy Mal­inda Miller, who was driv­ing 86 mph in a 40-mph zone with no emergency lights or siren.
She was racing to back up an officer on a non-emer­gency call: The other deputy thought he had spotted a van reported stolen.
Miller, then 28, was ticketed for speeding and failing to use her emergen­cy lights, but a judge threw out both tickets. The Sher­iff's Office fired her for vio­lating agency policy and causing the crash.
In August 2010, Orange County Deputy Eric Wheel­er, blew through a stop sign at 45 mph on State Road 50 near Bithlo, crashing into a car and seriously injuring its driver and two other peo­ple, according to crash rec­ords. Wheeler, 29, was ticketed for running a stop sign, but a judge threw it out. In an email, Sheriff's Of­fice Capt. Angelo Nieves said Orange County depu­ties drive 1,800 vehicles and cover 25 million miles a year. Citizens expect a quick response, he wrote, and offi­cers drive 'with the utmost respect for the community.' Sireci, president of the Police Chiefs Association, wrote in an email that most Florida police agencies re­quire officers to report even minor accidents, such as backing into a post.
Given that there are nearly 51,000 cops in the state, he wrote, 7,400 crash­es a year “is concerning but not a high number.”
That is little comfort to the family of Erskin Bell.

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Monroe County Deputy Melissa Powers died in this 106-mph crash in 2010. The Sheriff's Office began patrol reforms.