If the detective (Patrick Cherry of Sayville, Long Island) had a legitimate reason to pull the guy over, he would have radioed a patrol cruiser to ticket him. But he knew he had no grounds.
His union reps are saying that he was emotional because a coworker of his is in the hospital after having a complication following elbow surgery, and actually said "cops have feelings too."
I highly doubt that if a citizen accosted a police officer in the street, yelled at him, told him not to interrupt, and questioned him as to his provenance etc. that this citizen would be able to beg off with "I'm feeling emotional about something completely unrelated."
I'm sorry your boyfriend is sick, Patrick. Don't take it out on the rest of us.
Don’t know about NYC, but in Houston, only marked vehicles (including muted markings) with uniformed officers can do traffic stops. I found this out while driving to work early in the morning some dude driving some subcompact was following me with headlights doing wig-wags. Obviously bogus, and HPD concurred, saying I did the right thing disregarding that vehicle