Video of Mayor John Dickert's traffic stop on Dec. 12, 2009 on N. Main St.
Video provided by Racine Police Department.
Video provided by Racine Police Department.
A city police officer stopped Mayor John Dickert for speeding Dec. 12, 2009 in the 1200 block of North Main Street. Dickert was going 40 mph in a 30 mph zone at about 10 a.m. on a Saturday. He did not receive a ticket. There is no police report on the stop.
Video of the traffic stop, obtained with a records request to the police department, shows a brief, cordial encounter between Officer Bob Bojcic and Dickert near Jane Elementary School. Bojcic was conducting a speed wave near the school after the department received complaints about traffic.
Here'a transcript of the video:
Prior to exiting squad car:
Officer Bojcic: 1200 block of North Main (indecipherable)
Talking to Dickert:
Sgt. Martin Pavilonis, spokesman for the Racine Police Department who had watched the video, said proper procedures were handled during the stop.
Dickert: Hello, boss.
Officer: (indecipherable) You're the boss, aren't you?
Dickert: (laughs) Not always
Officer: Not always?
Dickert: What's going on?
Officer: Not much. We had a Speed Wave back here 40 in 30
Dickert: Oh (indecipherable) Sorry ... I was going to a radio show down in Kenosha
Officer: Yeah. Because of the school over there and the crossing guard always has fits over there so we come out here to do a speed wave out here to try and slow the traffic down it's like a race track out here, you know?
Dickert: It's actually a good idea.
Officer: Keep it down.
Dickert: You got it.
It's up to the officer's discretion on whether a driver gets a ticket, Pavilonis said. He said it was not unusual for a stop to take about 3 minutes when the officer does not issue a ticket.
There is no set policy on an officer's actions when they pull over an elected official like the mayor, Pavilonis said. If a police officer stops another police officer there is a policy to follow, he said, but that doesn't apply to the mayor.
As for the mayor's conduct, Pavilonis said he acted appropriately. "I don't think he asserted his rank as mayor," he said. "I don't think that's the case at all."
RacinePost requested video of the traffic stop after receiving a tip that the mayor was stopped. The city promptly answered a records request and provided a DVD of the stop from an in-squad video camera with audio collected from a microphone officers carry as part of their uniform.
