Posted on 06/20/2013 9:30:57 AM PDT by rarestia
LAKELAND --
The State Attorney's Office that covers Polk county has criticized a Lakeland Police officer for his method of searching a female for drugs.
State Attorney Jerry Hill wrote the Department saying Officer Dustin Fetz's request for a woman to shake her bra to free any hidden drugs was 'demeaning.'
Hill went on to say the method used on the May 21 traffic stop was also ineffective and dangerous, according to Bay News 9's coverage partner, The Lakeland Ledger.
Hill's letter to Police Chief Lisa Womack said an investigation showed Fetz did not have a reason to ask for such a search.
During the stop, Fetz asked the woman to lift her shirt, pull her bra away from her chest and shake it.
Fetz asked the woman to shake her bra a second time, and a search of her, her boyfriend and their car revealed no illegal items.
Hill said other Lakeland officers had used the method and called it a "major training deficiency."
The incident came to the State Attorney's attention after the Ledger posted a letter to the editor from Richard Wiley, a lawyer who knows the searched woman.
Womack ordered an internal investigation the day after the letter ran and Fetz went on paid leave for four days.
He's been with the Department since 2008.
The Office found Fetz did have reason to stop Zoe Brugger on West Beacon Road because of her broken headlight.
Investigators said the search violated her constitutional rights, but was not a criminal act.
The investigator said Brugger said she felt threatened and shouted for Fetz to stop as he searched the vehicle.
Fetz told the investigator the bra-shaking technique was well-known, but he was never formally trained to do it.
Brugger received a ticket and a notice to appear in court.
Officer Jeremy Williams, who later arrived at the scene, told the investigator he thought the search was improper.
The police dash-camera footage of the stop had no audio, which also violates police policy.
Maybe the officer was concerned that she was hiding a 44 or two under the bra?
BRING OUT THE FEMBOTS !
Fetz told the investigator the bra-shaking technique was well-known, but he was never formally trained to do it.
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And the formal training takes places at the Vanity Showbar.
Kid Cop forgot the old standby, “furtive look” as a basis for probable cause and his search. This Cop needs more training from the old hands to use the correct formula to subvert the 4th Amendment... Properly.
These incidents happen every day and every night in “This Land of Liberty”. We should be ashamed of ourselves. Streets are crawling with cops under pressure to show results. Public just wants to feel safe at any cost. We are a country of cowards who have ceded vast powers to strangers in order to transfer risk to others.
LOL!!! You silly, SILLY person!
This is Florida. Don't you know that we make it up as we go along! We invented tourist traps!
“She would appear to be hot enough to be able to cook something up on short notice.”
Maybe some Meth.
Well, we WERE a penal colony at one point in our history. That does explain some things.
I was one of the first people to start calling for massive RICO civil and criminal prosecutions of IRS officials for what they have been doing. I have the same opinion for people in the Government who go out of the way to violate the rights of the people under color of authority.
I’m not in favor of drug use but they go too far in “looking for drugs”.
I have a hard time understanding why it wasn't a criminal act too, and I live here!
The local leftist rag is a worthless waste of paper, and recently went to paid subscription for Internet access, and we are too far away from Tampa and Orlando to attract the attention of any serious crime/corruption reporters.
If any even still exist.
We have lots of traffic cameras, numerous drug/sex crime stings and busts, and lots of cop killings, way above average for a midsized central Florida city.
A pair of .38’s?
I thought our “president” said we should just trust the government and let them snoop wherever and whenever they want.
So what’s this woman’s complaint?
Lakeland? Hell the entire I4 corridor is a mess. Seffner is a cesspool, Plant City is acceptably southern, Lakeland is getting nastier, Haines City up to Celebration is like Juarez, and then you have Orlando. Don’t get me started on Orlando.
I try not to leave Pinellas county, and when I do, I exit by the north or the south. Hillsborough’s getting cesspool-y too.
At least we did not murder Terri Schivo. We have our warts, but we have not reached the point where we Judicially starve the helpless to death for montary gain.
I’m not putting you down, sport. Pinellas has its warts. I’m a proud citizen of an unincorporated part of Pinellas. Clearwater disgusts me in general. I stay locked in my cozy northern part of the county and only venture in Schiavo-land for work or to go to the beach.
Besides, you can blame the Florida judiciary on that decision. I remember that circus, wished it didn’t happen the way it did, but I was glad when it was over.
O.K. but the fact of the matter is that you told the truth. Like you, I don’t like it but there is not much I can do to change it. I hit a lick to change things when I can.
No use in whitewashing it. It was a disgusting spectacle. That poor woman did not deserve what happened to her, but the pressure of public media and social stigma forced good people to make bad decisions.
If you lived in the area, you were ashamed to admit it.
I lived in the area.I stood outside the Pinellas Park facility, along with the family, protesting the illegal court ordered execution of Terri Schiavo.
The local people were very proud and very loud in their support of the court ordered execution of a severely disabled woman.
The entire country seemed to lust for her torturous death!
I'm glad to hear you think some of your neighbors consider themselves ashamed, now.
I reject your position that the media and social pressures forced good people to make bad decisions.
I was there!
You may ask God to have mercy on your souls, but I won't add my prayers to yours, as I have already asked him to damn your souls to Hell!
Whoa there momma. I don’t know who you think I support, but Schiavo was as much a living soul and one of God’s children as you or I. I never supported her deliberate starvation, I was on the side of life!
I was ashamed of my county, my state, and my country for looking away from God. Your ire is completely misplaced and I am a bit insulted that you cast stones at me. I understand it was a highly charged event, but I thought I was pretty clear where I stood.
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