I haven’t seen it brought up, but Elandon’s car had out of state plates. The police officer had no way to know it was his house. The officer called for backup because he tried to get out of his car. Ft Bend has acknowledged that the officer could have been more professional in dealing with Elandon’s wife and apologized for the length of the stop, but it took 7-8 minutes for back up to arrive. The officer in the video had only been a police officer for 4 months.
Since the incident, the Ft Bend Sheriff’s office has met with Elandon and his attorney and the office believes Elandon and his wife could have been treated more professionally, but does not think this has anything to do with race. The citation was reduced to a warning by the officer. It is important to note here that Ft Bend is the most ethnically diverse county in the U.S. and the Sheriff’s office does not have a history of racial profiling (at least I am not aware of it). I believe this is just a rookie cop dealing with some weird facts (out of state plates, 20+ miles over speed limit in residential area, stop ends at Elandon’s house) and potentially could have been handled differently by a more seasoned police officer (no call for backup).
Why would she comply to some stupid command, that’s her husband been harass? Comply to what go inside and shut the garage door. What world do you live in?
what has out of state plate has to do with professional courtesy? This is a free country right. He could have had a rental car. So we know treat our out of state guess by stopping them for no reason.
This is actually a pertinent topic to this day and age but, just like the Elizabeth warren thread, it doesn’t have to do with football so how about moving this thread to the satellite?
I’ve never had a cop make me wait 5-10 minutes before walking up to my window. Maybe a couple of minutes but never anything pushing 10. Either I’m getting lucky when I’m pulled over or you’re getting really unlucky.
I’m not a cop hater and far from it. There are are 4 types of people that look at these types of issues and I’m sure all 4 are in this thread.
Never the cops fault
Give benefit of doubt to cop
Give the other side the benefit of the doubt
Always the cops fault
I tend to fall in camp 2 and try to give the cop the benefit of the doubt. That job is dangerous and they have to make split second decisions. That said, those split second decisions are often driven by unconscious biases (that we all have). And, we have to address these biases and at least admit when they exist.
This cop’s behavior was problematic, IMO. I don’t think he should be fired but he definitely could have handled this better and definitely had some unconscious bias driving some of his response. The big black male/man indicates that. Does anyone think he would radioed in that he needed backup because a big white male/man wouldn’t comply (especially when the subject was complying)?
Elandon could have handled better too by staying in his car but the man was in his driveway which is a different tilt on this one. Either way, Elandon isn’t the professional in this case. The cop was. Elandon isn’t put in this situation on a regular basis and this was a fairly unique one that I’m guessing most of us haven’t been involved in. I’m sure he was really nervous too.
Have you ever been stopped by an officer and he was clutching his gun??! I have. Once lived near Westside Tennis Club and was heading home from work from the Houston Design Center building off Woodway, when a Tanglewood PD officer stoped me. I was going a little over limit, not much, when the lights cane on, and I pulled over. Older Cop got out of vehicle and grabbed his gun. (At this point I am scared and nervous that he was going to shoot me for no reason.) I followed directions, gave licence and registration, received the ticket, which I did deserve for speeding, but the gun in hand thing freaked me out. I know officers go though a lot and I respect them and love what they do, but there are some that need to practice restraint. BTW, I have a few good friends that work for HPD and one as Dallas PD. I was told by a few of them that the under 30 crowd are the officers that grab the guns faster.
I fall under the category of “watch and analyze the evidence carefully, and come up with an evidence based conclusion.”
As a prosecutor, I have to fall into that category. I have no other choice.
In this case, I watched the evidence (the dash cam video). After watching it and analyzing it, I determined that the cop didn’t inform the detainee as to reason for his stop until far too late, he LIED and called the guy non-compliant when, in fact, he had done everything the cop asked him to do readily and without argument, and then he made a borderline inappropriate “big black man” comment over the radio.
This enabled me to come up with the following evidence based conclusion: UNprofessional behavior.
Fair enough. 99.9% of us fall in those buckets. A lot of people say they are none of the above but really aren’t. I’m certainly not saying that’s you and you’ve clearly been professionally trained to be otherwise.
I think most live at the extremes of the above and view everything from that lense. It makes these types of things impossible to rationally discuss.
Out of state plates means it may be difficult to ascertain the driver and connect the dots he is at his own home. You do bring up a good point about the same issue with a rental car. I was merely trying to build a fact pattern where you end up with potentially an out of the ordinary traffic stop.
The Sheriffs office mentioned the stop could have been handled more professionally so out of state plates has nothing to do with being a professional.
It’s pretty hard to side with the cop after watching and listening to the video. He flat out lied about ERob not being compliant.
I wonder had it been me he stopped if he would have described me as being an average size white male. Very doubtful.
Just to keep this in a football topic, I was reminded of the time I was stopped for speeding in Arkansas. It was the early 80’s, and we were vacationing with our two very small kids and the in-laws. Back in those days, you always got out of the car when stopped. I showed the state trooper my license, he noticed I was from Houston, and asked if I had seen the football game the previous Saturday at the Astrodome. I replied that I was at the game, and he began talking about the game in detail. The fact that the Coogs had lost the game probably saved me a ticket.
You are right about me. (I would never hurt anyone, but of course, to save wife or kids from someone trying to attack them.) I just think that the officer might have had a few bad experiences and feared for his life, and assumed something out of fear. I still respected him as officer of the law.
Guys, go watch the Ft Bend Sheriff Offices press conference posted on YouTube by Channel 11. They actually have a discussion about big white man vs big white male. If two suspects get out of the car and run, how would you describe them?
The police officer could have handled differently and the sheriff’s office has acknowledged as much. They have met with Elandon and apologized for the stuff that could have been handled more professionally. One of the USA Today videos circulated has been heavily redacted and edited to give the viewer a narrative. If you only watched that video, you lose the context and the narrative is slanted.
Have you ever been stopped by an officer and he was clutching his gun??!
Never, but I have been in the room when a police officer was arresting a dude for theft. The PO was very forceful but in reality (I knew the guy very well) he was shaking like a dog passing razor blades . . . . . Maybe there is enough training some time along the experience line (war experience included) for PO’s to be reasonable comfortable with the threat posed by someone they are confronting in a potentially dangerous situation, but, but, but they have a very dangerous job and I do personally believe they are just as nervous as the people being confronted . . . . .