By Monterey Bud

 

Saving time, money, and potentially lives, a Florida deputy opted for common sense at a Memorial Day block party – rather than incarceration.

Caught on video for your consideration, a St. Johns County officer exercised discretion when he dumped out a couple’s small sack of pot and decided, “to cut the couple a break.”

On Monday evening, a concerned citizen videotaped the interaction between the police and the couple – worried the police were participating in unlawful activities. Rather than the video demonstrating St. Johns’ officers committing a crime, the video essentially displays the police “doing a good deed,” according to News4Jax.

“The video shows the deputy, whose name was not released, dumping out a baggie of what appears to be marijuana that had just been found inside a car at a Memorial Day block party at Calvin Peete Park in West Augustine. The deputy then grinds the contents into the walkway.”

Hardly criminal activity, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s office, Cmdr. Chuck Mulligan justified the officer’s actions. “Deputy sheriffs are allowed to seize contraband. Is it evidence? No. If we’re not prosecuting someone, then it’s not evidence.”

Conceding the action might not have constituted “a best practice,” Cmdr. Mulligan explained that it was perfectly legal.

“They made the choice not to give them criminal records,” Mulligan said. “They made the choice not to stigmatize those individuals. They mentored them. They counseled with them about the use of drugs.”

By prioritizing their sparse resources to focus on crimes that hurt real victims, Mulligan noted the deputy’s actions saved the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office valuable taxpayer dollars.

With “higher priority calls stacking up,” the officer’s decisions to chastise and warn the couple saved valuable time and resources for the Sheriff’s office. By simply NOT arresting and processing the pot smoking couple – “for charges that the State Attorney’s Office likely would have declined to file” – the officer single-handedly increased trust, reduced waste, and put public safety first.