Judge says Hillsborough County deputies can be ticketed

Monday, November 10, 2003

News Image

Matthew Jowanna presents his case to a Hillsborough County Judge.
Hillsborough County deputies are currently exempt from getting traffic tickets. Now a Hillsborough County Judge has ordered the sheriff's department to stop implementing the practice.

Attorney Matthew Jowanna told Judge William Levens he couldn't believe it when a Hillsborough County Deputy ran a red light and caused his wife to crash and he was not ticketed.

Judge Levens ruled the policy is illegal and must be ended.

The sheriff's office says rather than ticketing deputies, it conducts an internal review of traffic violations. In most cases the punishment is more severe than a ticket.

News Image

Colonel Jose Docobo says the policy is fair because deputies face different traffic problems than civilians. "We stick deputies inside these vehicles and ask them to monitor radios, digitals, be on alert, be aware of their surroundings, a hundred different things going on which is not typical of any other individual. So we take that into account.?

Tampa Police Chief Stephen Hogue says though it is not official department policy to exempt officers from traffic tickets, it is a tradition in the culture of law enforcement.

Hogue says he is now reviewing the department's practices. "We might wait until the appeals process occurs so the court can give us some guidance on exactly how these matters should be handled."

Tampa Police Chief Steven Hogue says in 2000, then Chief Bennie Holder and Hillsborough County Sheriff Cal Henderson agreed not to issue traffic tickets to each other's personnel during accident investigations.

Both agencies say they will review this agreement pending an appeal of Judge Leven's ruling.

Jowanna says there are probably many other agencies across the state with similar policies. He says he'll go from county to county to get those agencies to overturn those policies.