TPD Drill Sergeants

TPD officers were recently sued by a colleague of mine, Kevin Adams, for forcing an individual to do push ups on the side of the road to avoid receiving a traffic ticket. Many people have commented on this case and have stated that because the individual was a convicted felon that he should keep his mouth shut and be happy he didn’t get a ticket. Now I don’t know if it is because I’m a criminal defense lawyer, I believe in the constitution or that I just simply have a different mind set than some people but I find this behavior by TPD to be completely unacceptable. Making someone do push ups on the side of the road is not only against police policy but it is also completely demeaning. What if this was done to someones daughter or niece or wife, would we read the same kind of comments that they should feel lucky they didn’t get a ticket, or would the public be completely outraged. We cannot look at the person that was treated in this manner, we must simply look at the action by the officer and determine whether those actions were right or wrong. In this case they were absolutely wrong.