ºüÀêÊÓƵ Alderman Joe Vaccaro and I have something in common.
His son is a cop.
My oldest daughter was on the force for about 15 years.
Several years ago, something in one of my columns caused her pause. I had written about Heather Taylor, who, like my daughter, was a sergeant. Taylor, who is now a senior adviser to interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom, was also the president of the Ethical Society of Police, an organization founded by Black officers in 1972 to address issues of discrimination in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Metropolitan Police Department.
My daughter, who did her public service in the Denver area, was dumbfounded that ºüÀêÊÓƵ had, in effect, two police unions — one, the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Police Officers Association dominated by white officers, and the other whose primary membership was Black officers.
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The two organizations often find themselves at odds with each other.
That’s not the case this week, and that brings us back to Vaccaro. A couple of weeks ago, the alderman got pulled over on Interstate 44 for speeding. That’s something else we have in common. I have a bit of a lead foot. The officer who pulled Vaccaro over was Black. The alderman is white. After the stop, Vaccaro went on television and the radio to blast the officer who pulled him over. Vaccaro called him an expletive. He said he was a jerk and that he was rude.
The officer’s body-camera footage told a different story. In fact, it was Vaccaro, who is the powerful chairman of the Public Safety Committee on the Board of Aldermen, who was rude, and misrepresented the incident.
If that’s all this was — a politician throwing his weight around — this would be what we in the journalism business call a “dog bites man†story, which is to say it’s not unusual. Dogs bite people. It’s not uncommon. Now, man bites dog? That’s a big deal.
And that’s what this story became last week, when both the Ethical Society of Police and the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Police Officers Association called for Vaccaro to resign or otherwise be removed from the Public Safety Committee. “You can draw your own conclusions, but it appears he (Vaccaro) wanted preferential treatment. Instead, he received professionalism from the officer as evidenced in body-cam footage that has been made public,†said the Ethical Society in a statement. “It is clear that Mr. Vaccaro cannot be objective about matters involving members of the City’s police force.â€
A day earlier, Jay Schroeder, president of the other police officers association, had called on Vaccaro “to issue a public apology, take accountability for his actions, resign his chairmanship of the Public Safety Committee and step down as an Alderman.â€
None of those things has happened. But what did occur is that the police department, following Vaccaro’s original complaint, apparently started an investigation into the officer’s behavior.
That’s what happens in politics when powerful people complain about people below them. That the two police associations found themselves in agreement on the issue should offer some context that could be useful in other public safety debates. Before this incident, Vaccaro had a solid “pro-cop†reputation. But what does that mean, really?
Is he pro-white cop? Is he pro-cop when officers use his car wash? Or is he only pro-cop when his more progressive opponents on the Board of Aldermen are pushing for police accountability measures, and the politics of division helps his cause?
That’s the little detail about this incident that shouldn’t be lost: This was a traffic stop on a highway. Such encounters can be deadly for police officers, and sometimes deadly for motorists, as well. It’s hard to imagine that a grown man who sits in power over a police department’s budget and policies doesn’t know how to properly behave in such a situation, but the video doesn’t lie. Vaccaro got out of his car and approached the officer while on the shoulder of a busy highway. He offered excuses for his speeding, and was aggressive as the officer was trying to do his job.
Two police organizations that don’t see eye-to-eye very often find themselves on the same page because the arrogance of an elected politician could have negative professional consequences for one of their own. In response, they are biting the hand that feeds them. Will Vaccaro bite back, or accept the lesson the rank-and-file ºüÀêÊÓƵ police officers are trying to teach him?
That’s the question that remains to be answered.