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Cops called for tow, BAC operator, for traffic stop of officer’s relative
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Dispatch tapes involving the relative of a city police officer who received a citation for having an open container of alcohol in a car after a traffic stop last week reveal aspects of the case not included in a police incident report.
Tapes released to The Vindicator by the Youngstown Police Department show officers asked for a tow truck to come to the scene, took a person to the room where blood-alcohol tests are given, and also asked for an officer who was certified to run the machine that gives the BAC test.
Those details were left out of a police report that mentioned that Joseph K. Slattery Jr., 54, of Youngstown, was cited for having an open container about 5:30 p.m. Friday in the 1500 block of Mahoning Avenue on the West Side after an officer pulled over a car he was driving for running a red light at Steel Street and Mahoning.
Slattery is a relative of a city police officer. Departmental sources claimed he was given preferential treatment by not being arrested or charged with driving under the influence.
The police department’s Internal Affairs Division is investigating the stop.
The report of the citation states that “after conversing with Slattery Jr., it was concluded he was not impaired, the vehicle was released on scene to another licensed driver,” and also mentions the citation for open container, as well as for running the red light.
The report makes no mention of officers’ asking for a tow, taking someone to the police station or administering a BAC test. In the logbook in the room where the BAC machine is, there is a notation that Slattery was taken to the room, but next to the spot where a BAC amount is to be reported in the log, that line is left blank.
On the tapes, an officer pulls over the car in the parking lot of the vacant Wonder Bread outlet store on Mahoning. Another officer arrives a couple of minutes later and radioes in that he also is on the scene.
The first officer asks the dispatch center for a tow, and the tape includes a call from a city dispatcher to a towing company asking for a tow truck and giving the address on Mahoning.
The officer then asks for the incident number and asks if an officer who is certified to work the BAC machine is on duty. Another officer then radioes in and says he is available, according to the tapes.
The first officer then informs the dispatch center that he is en route to the police station to go to the “second floor,” which is where the BAC machine is, and a few minutes later he checks in and informs the dispatch center he is at the station.
The room on the second floor has a machine that a person blows into that registers blood-alcohol content. They are required to wait 20 minutes before administering the test.
Lt. Brian Butler, head of internal affairs, said he could not speak as to why the BAC part of the logbook was left blank. He said that is one of the things investigators will review. He also said that not every officer includes in a report if a request for a tow truck is made but a car is not towed.
Butler did say that reports should reflect if someone is given a BAC test, even if the person passes it and is released.
He said investigators will be asking why that was not included in the report and also why officers did not put in the report that a tow truck was requested.