To the 25-year-old lost and confused driver who “messed up” and drove the wrong way through a traffic circle, the man in shorts and tank top who jumped out of a red pickup truck and yelled expletives at him appeared to be a road rager. So he put his car in reverse and began backing away. He was, after all, in a rough part of town and the guy looked like a tough.
Then the road rager flashed a badge. At that point, the lost driver pulled over to the curb, was apologetic, and complied with the off-duty cop’s orders. But the cop continued to rage, and threatened to shoot the driver in the head. At that point, the driver informed the cop that he was being recorded by a dashcam, and the cop then backed away while continuing to rant.
Photo: Detective Stephen Lambert of the Medford, Massachusetts, police department is on administrative leave after threatening to shoot a confused motorist who made a traffic mistake. Lambert, a 30-year police veteran, has a troubling prior history of threatening behavior. (Click here for story.)
Comment: When a cop sees a traffic infraction, his job is to pull over the driver and issue a warning or citation. How does off-duty status affect the situation? Generally speaking, a cop’s authority doesn’t cease when he’s off-duty and in civilian attire (but maybe legislators should consider revisiting that policy). But this guy didn’t act like a cop. He was just an angry motorist raging at another driver. Not until the victim of his ire began to back away did he identify himself as a cop and begin to exercise his police authority. Even then, he continued to mix up his civilian and police roles, which effectively made him an out-of-control cop. That has ramifications. If the driver sues — and he should sue, because his life was threatened — the city is on the hook for legal liability. Having identified himself as a cop and having exercised police authority, the cop is on the hook for unprofessional conduct. What should now happen in this case is the city should pay a settlement and the cop should be fired. This was about as clear a case of misuse of police authority as you’ll ever find anywhere.