I read the article, and living out here in California, I can tell you I have seen too many “Un-Marked” Police Vehicles pulling people over.. Everything from old Hondas tinted windows with cop lights.........Seems like this guy got run over with his own vehicle..............Couldn’t pay me enough to be a cop.
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The cops use Dodge Chargers now .. this wouldn’t have been a car the cops seized (stole) from someone.. the local cops get either V6 cars or the regular Hemi ,, the highway Patrol get SRT-8 big-dog Hemi 6.1 cars , the Crown Vics are going away... Someone on an earlier reply said that it sounded like a video game .. GTA ... they’re right
This was what caught my attention at first. Around my area, detectives don't make routine traffic stops. Traffic cops make routine traffic stops.
Around here, the traffic cops do use unmarked cars. Some of them were seized from drug dealers, and they get titles through asset forfeiture proceedings, so the car could be a lot of different makes and models. It wouldn't surprise me to get pulled over by an unmarked new model Dodge Charger.
But they install flashing red and blue lights and a loudspeaker in the grill, whether it's a seized vehicle or not. When the traffic cop gets out of the vehicle, you can always see very clearly that he's a uniformed police officer.
A plainclothes cop alone in an unmarked car, making a traffic stop, is asking for trouble even in a low crime area. In Liberty City, Florida it was reckless.
I read the article, and living out here in California, I can tell you I have seen too many “Un-Marked” Police Vehicles pulling people over.. Everything from old Hondas tinted windows with cop lights....
When the unmarked car pulled the subjects over, the detective should have instructed the subjects to stay in the car on the shoulder of the road, and immediately called for backup in a marked vehicle, unless the detective was in uniform. The news story doesn't mention the time of day, whether the detective was in uniform (it's rare but it does occur here in Illinois), or other circumstances regarding this incident. It also doesn't mention whether the car had flashing red and/or blue lights installed, or whether the detective put a magnetic temporary light on the roof of the car above the driver's door, or on the dashboard.
I'm sure that Castillo had already identified himself as a police officer, however, by the time he was assaulted. The story does tell us that Robertson had fled, and that Castillo had secured Banks in handcuffs. That provided plenty of time for Castillo to show his badge and, loudly and clearly, identify himself verbally as a police officer. I'm sure that he did so.
Safer police procedure has to be learned from this incident, and then adopted in similar circumstances. Detective Carlos Castillo made a mistake at the start of this traffic stop and has now, on behalf of every cop in the country, paid the tuition for this class. He should have waited for backup before he even got out of the car, particularly in a high crime area such as Liberty City. This needs to be learned.
We join you in praying for the recovery of Detective Castillo, and for his family at this difficult time.