Knox County, Tennessee, Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones understands what it means to wear a shield.  From WBIR :

Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones said the officers violated departmental policies and procedures during the traffic stop.

According to the investigation, the officers’ actions were unauthorized and not approved. A complaint was made to the Office of Professional Standards.  When it was determined that one of the deputies was Brad Cox, whose father is Captain Tom Cox, who oversees the Office of Professional Standards, the complaint was then forwarded to Lieutenant Mark Webber of the Major Crimes Unit to investigate.

Jones named the five officers and provided dash cam video of what they did before anybody asked.

“This is an embarrassing incident to the Sheriff’s Office and certainly is not indicative of the men and women who work hard and are very professional,” said Sheriff Jones. “I am releasing this information before any media inquiries because I think it’s important for us to be open and honest.”

What happened isn’t entirely clear, except that the five patrol officers decided to play with some kids who were speeding.  After stopping a car with three males and two females, Officer Brian Rehg has a chat with the 19 year old unnamed driver.

You can hear one of the officers speaking to the driver of the car.  He asks him if he’d like one ticket for speeding or three tickets for speeding, reckless driving, and drag racing.  The driver says one ticket.  The officer replies that another officer has a proposition for him, and if he does it well, he’ll get one ticket.  At that time, it appears the officers turned off their mics, because there is no further sound.  It is unclear what the proposition was because you cannot hear it or see the driver or his passengers on the recording.  You can see the officers appear to be watching something and laughing.  At one point on one of the recordings, you see one of the young men run in front of the patrol car.  A few minutes later, the driver and his passengers are seen getting back into the car and driving off.

It’s critical to note that there is nothing to suggest anyone was beaten or tased.  While the story offers no clue what the proposition might have been, there’s no reason to believe that any notable harm was done to any of the five young people in the car.  Yet rather than toss it off as some cop prank, Sheriff Jones was outraged by the unprofessional, unlawful and completely improper conduct of his officers, one of whom was the son of a police Captain who oversaw the department’s Office of Professional Standards.

With unfortunate frequency, stories appear of police impropriety, glossed over by meaningless claims of department policy or promises of investigations that are never mentioned again.  Almost never are the police officers who stood by and did nothing to stop impropriety by their blue brothers subject to scrutiny, no less discipline.

And the one thing that we never hear about is the big guy taking the initiative to clean up a mess in his own home, police misconduct almost invariably being concealed unless and until someone from the outside with sufficient clout makes a major stink of it.

Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones’ actions in recognizing, disclosing and addressing what happened in his department, and thus making it abundantly clear that it will not be tolerated under his watch, is an extraordinary act of integrity. 

There is one question, however, that’s a bit nagging.  The discipline for these five officers wasn’t discharge, but busting them down to the bottom rung of law enforcement.

Based on your decision to directly violate Departmental Policy and Procedures, as well as violating Merit Council Rules: 9.3a: Failure to meet performance requirements, 9.3d: Incompetence, inefficient and negligence in the performance of duty, and 9.3g: Notoriously disgraceful personal conduct, I have made the decision to strip you of your Law Enforcement powers and demote you from the position of Patrol Officer to a Correction Officer effective immediately.”

So rather than have these officers on the road dealing with people where their conduct is observable by others, and recorded by dash cam, you’re going to put them into the jail where they will be dealing with prisoners, with no outsider observing and where no claim of impropriety can be verified.  And now they’re angry.  What could possibly go wrong?

Update:  Via Radley Balko, the  Knox News provides a description of the what happened when the mic went off.

[The 19-year-old driver} Phillips cooperated with the officers, consenting to a search of the Acura and responding respectfully. Officers cursed at him and produced a baseball bat, then made a proposition — the reckless driving and drag racing charges would be dropped if Phillips pulled off a stunt with the bat. With the bat perpendicular to the ground, the officers made Phillips put his forehead on the end and run in circles until he became dizzy. Then officers made him run around a cruiser without falling down.

After completing the humiliating task, Phillips was sent on his way with a speeding ticket.

No blood.  No guts. No rape or pillage.  And still Sheriff Jones wasn’t putting up with it.