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As part of its Police Accountability Project, the comptroller's office reviewed camera footage of 501 stops by state police that did not result in a ticket. In 27% of the stops, motorists presented a courtesy card, claimed to have a friend or relative in law enforcement, or flashed a law enforcement badge and then were let go, the report said.
In some cases, the trooper released the motorist immediately, offering some version of “you’re good.”
The report found courtesy cards are in wide usage and function as “accepted currency” by state troopers and are almost always given back to the motorist to be used again.
One motorist, who was stopped for driving over 90 miles per hour, admitted to drinking alcohol but was let go without a sobriety test after he presented two cards, the report said.
Another motorist was stopped for driving over 103 miles per hour and was released after she volunteered that her father was a lieutenant in a local police department, the report said.
“Law enforcement decisions should never depend on who you know, your family connections, or donations to police unions. Nepotism and favoritism undermine our laws and make our roads more dangerous," said Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh.
Many of the stops involved drivers going more than 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, the report said. In three stops, drivers stopped for reckless driving, careless driving, and/or speeding, also admitted to drinking alcohol, yet were released without being asked to step out of the car for a field sobriety test, the report found.
In one stop, a trooper performed a computerized look-up of the driver's credentials and discovered the driver had an active warrant for his arrest. But when the driver’s friend introduced himself, letting the trooper know that he was also an off-duty trooper, the stopping trooper walked back to the motorist, apologized for stopping him, and let him go without even mentioning the warrant, the report said. OSC was unable to determine from the footage what the warrant was for.
Courtesy cards are given out by police labor associations to law enforcement officers.
To view the report, click here.
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