Tribune030806_trafficlight The Tampa Tribune Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Section NATION/WORLD Page 1 Police Officer Delayed Red Traffic Signal To Check Tags TACTIC MAY HAVE VIOLATED RIGHTS By VALERIE KALFRIN vkalfrin@tampatrib.com TAMPA - A Tampa police sergeant awaiting discipline in four internal investigations may have violated motorists' Fourth Amendment rights by manipulating traffic signals to check license plates, public records show. Sgt. Gene Strickland told his supervisors in a May memorandum released Tuesday that he wanted to put a dent in downtown auto thefts. So he electronically manipulated traffic signals at three Tampa Heights intersections near public housing complexes, keeping the signal red long enough to run a computer check on a motorist's license plate. "The tag comes back clean, I turned it green," Strickland said Tuesday. At the time, the move earned Strickland a mild rebuke. On Tuesday, though, when informed of the tactic, City Councilman Kevin White and a law professor questioned its merits. "What he's done is set up an electronic roadblock" to check people's records without reasonable suspicion of a crime Page 1
Tribune030806_trafficlight and without probable cause, said Charles Rose, a constitutional law professor at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport. "Cops just can't stop people because they want to; they've got to have reason." By that logic, evidence discovered during such an operation likely would not hold up in court, Rose said. Concerns about possible violations of the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure, led supervisors to order Strickland to stop the practice in June 2005. "If you hold someone for longer than the light's cycle, the police have in essence detained them," Police Chief Stephen Hogue said Tuesday. "It was in a gray part of the law that I didn't feel comfortable with." Rigging the traffic lights earned Strickland a "pending file entry," a note in his personnel file that is purged after one year. Tampa police on Tuesday released the note and Strickland's May 2005 memorandum explaining the maneuver in response to a Tampa Tribune public records request regarding Strickland. The 25-year veteran awaits discipline regarding his decisions as a supervisor, including handling of a hostile work environment on his now-disbanded squad. Page 2
Tribune030806_trafficlight Strickland, 49, called the traffic-light technique a "tactical ploy." The idea, he said, was to avoid a dangerous police pursuit by boxing in a stolen car while it was stopped. Strickland said he used the tactic about four times between midnight and 3 a.m. He studied statistics regarding where many stolen cars were recovered in his district and chose three intersections he thought car thieves might use: East Scott Street and North Nebraska Avenue, North Boulevard and West Ross Avenue, and North Florida and East Indiana avenues. Councilman White said he would like to see the data that led Strickland to choose the intersections. Each is on the fringe of public housing complexes, he said. Census data show 22.5 percent of the families in Tampa Heights have income below poverty level. Strickland defended his strategy: "The last thing I've ever done to anybody is violate anybody's specific rights - or target any individual. That couldn't be farther from the truth." The technique was "totally unobtrusive to any motorist," he said. "Nine times out of 10, I gave them a green light earlier than they would've gotten it," he said. The memos do not say how many motorists Page 3
Tribune030806_trafficlight were checked or on which dates the technique was used. Strickland on Tuesday did not recall any citations that resulted from it. The memos state no one was cited for running the manipulated signals while red. The tactic came to light when Maj. George McNamara, then Strickland's supervisor in District 3, read about it on an activity report and asked Capt. Russell Marcotrigiano to look into it. Police manipulate traffic signals for crowd control, such as leaving them green longer around Raymond James Stadium after a football game, Marcotrigiano said Tuesday. Strickland's results showed the tactic wasn't an efficient way to find stolen cars, he said, plus it didn't "look good." White said Strickland appears to have been "trying to do some proactive police work." But doing that by "manipulating the system" is wrong, he said. "That's not acceptable at all, in any area of town," White said. "I think Tampa Police Department standards are higher than that." Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800. Copyright Š 2006 The Tampa Tribune.
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