218: Unethical Leadership in Action: The Tampa Police Chief Who Flashed a Badge

The choice you make after you pose this question can go one of two ways. Is your camera on? It is for the police chief in Tampa, Florida. She made the wrong choice. Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast, where we use current events and test immediate and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. Following in an internal affairs investig, Mary o' Connor is now the former police chief of Tampa, Florida, after she resigned two weeks ago after body cam footage showed her asking a sheriff deputy to just let us go from a traffic stop. So in this episode, three easy choices in ethical leadership. To save your soul. I'm just kidding. To save your reputation. Well, also your soul. On November 12, Mary O' Connor was a passenger in a golf cart driven by her husband when the pair were pulled over by a sheriff's deputy. It was oconnors own deputy. So according to the Tampa Police Department, the deputy who pulled over the police chief had to report the incident, what happened. And there was body camera footage where the sheriff was explaining to the police chief why she was being pulled over. So I want to take a closer look at this incident for a few reasons. One, I want you to hear what guilt sounds like because we have the opportunity to listen to it because we have the deputy's body cam footage. You can hear the sound of someone trying to get away with something, which is fascinating and it's also something that you might hear in a media interview. But it also is an opportunity to shed light on unethical leadership, what it looks like when leaders make the wrong choice. A very unethical choice. Now, you may have seen footage from this body cam incident on social media. It was all over the news. It was all over social media. That was the first place where I saw it. And if you did, chances are you only heard a portion of the clip. And that's when the deputy came over to ask o' Connor for identification. I am going to play the entire clip for you from the very beginning when they get pulled over. Okay. It's just about two minutes. It's not that long of a podcast. But I want you to listen to the whole clip because it tells the story a lot better because now we can really, really set the scene. So picture. If you haven't seen the video, it looks like they're in a parking lot. So the sheriff's deputy pulls up, you're going to listen to him talk to kind of radio in what was happening. And then I want you to listen to the female voice is Mary o'. Connor, and sitting next to her is her husband, and then there's the sheriff deputy. So take a listen to the entire video, and we'll come back to deconstruct it. Is your camera on? It is. I'm the police chief in Tampa. Oh. How you doing? I'm doing good. Okay. I'm hoping that you'll just let us go tonight. Oh, okay. Yeah. So now you say I. You look familiar, so. Yeah, I'm sure I do. It makes you nervous even listening to it, right? Like, what you heard, you didn't see because it's a podcast. But what you heard was the sound of a guilty person. You also heard the sound of a person who got away with something. That's the infuriating part. Right. But what is so interesting is listening to what she said and how she said it and then what the husband said and how the husband said it and when they said it, because that is the pattern that you're listening to of guilt and then the COVID and the sound of getting away with something. Now, you might hear that type of interaction in a media interview. Sort of picture a deputy as a reporter asking very pointed questions. Someone is on the spot. Sometimes they flail around a little. There's a lot of Hamanahamana. Hamana. They don't know how to respond. That's very, very similar incident because the person doesn't want to look guilty, just like in a media interview. And just like being pulled over by a police officer. Now, we can't judge her too harshly, because how many people have tried to talk their way out of a ticket? Okay, A lot of people do that. That's just good conversation skills. Okay. Good negotiation skills. But the problem with o' Connor is that she was trying to talk her way out of a ticket. As a police chief, you can't do that. Okay? She broke the law, and then she's trying to get out of the law. And in addition to that, she's creating an unethical situation for her deputy to decide what that deputy needs to do. It creates a toxic environment, one of distrust. Now, as you were listening to her, did you hear the sound of relief? Like, you could hear the moment she knew she was getting away with it? Okay, what did she do? She did what all guilty people do when they get away with it. When someone gets away with a lie, when someone gets away with doing something wrong, it's just that release. Now, I just, like, from personal experience, I know that, like, that pattern of behavior is so familiar to me. And what people do is when they're nervous, like in the beginning, she's getting pulled over. She doesn't want to get a ticket. Okay? So she's very halting in what she's saying. She's asking about the camera. The fact that he says the camera's on, and then she proceeds to still ask to get out of a ticket. That is absolutely baffling to me. Why anyone would do that is beyond. She essentially wanted him to do away with the tape, like, make it go away. She's handing over her badge, which is in, like, a wallet. First she hands it to the husband. The husband grabs it. So the husband is an accomplice in all of this. But you hear the nervousness. You don't hear anything from him. And then when he stands down and lets her know, like, oh, okay, all right, well, nice to meet you. We're going to let you go. You heard the s. It's kind of like if you have an instapot. I cook with an instapot every week. And that's that sound when you press a button, and then what does it fill with? Okay, so once that release happens, you know that you're avoiding punishment, you're avoiding consequence. So now you can fill. When the air leaves, you have to fill it with something. And that's when you heard both of them. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what guilty people do. They insert with chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter. And the reason why they do that. And the same thing happens in a media interview. They're trying to exercise power and control. They want to have an impact on the relationship. And that impact means they want to own the relationship. They want the power position in that relationship. O' Connor wanted it to go away. That's why that video is so interesting to me. Now. Did o' Connor get away with it? She did that night, but then she didn't. So in a statement that was released two weeks ago, OConnor needed to apologize to the residents of Tampa. And she said that she did call the sheriff's office to pay for any citations that she had. Oh, how nice of her. How nice of her to offer to pay. What is a citation for a golf cart that doesn't have their tanks? Who even knows what it is? So Okana resigned. So let's just take a look, though, at her statement. Now, before I even read the statement, I knew based on that video that this statement was not going to be a. I'm coming 100% clean statement. Not a chance. Not a chance. Because people who get caught in moral failures, like when they lie, they have a more difficult time admitting what they did wrong in public statements where there's some distance between the act and the person. So if you're the head of an organization, if you're the CEO, the owner of a business, and let's say something happened on the job with an employee or with a product, or there was an incident, they're somewhat removed. Okay? That culpability isn't 100%. So it's easier to take accountability for something. Or if someone's adjacent to an incident or to a crisis, it's easier to take accountability. Right. But where people struggle with it, and this is one of those tells in PR where you can tell when people are guilty. They don't want to admit 100% fault because they don't want to admit that they're wrong. They want to protect the lie. Okay? And that's what we have here. I called it. Before I even read it. I called it. Okay? So here's what she had to say. It was poor judgment on our part. Not hers, ours. She nabbed her husband. Now, it's true her husband was driving the cart, but she put her husband and she threw him under the golf cart. It was poor judgment on our part to be driving a golf cart on a public roadway without the appropriate tags. There is a lot of detail in that one sentence. Okay. She's not apologizing for trying to get out of it. Her first statement, and I always say this, if you follow me on TikTok, I say this all the time. I say it on a podcast, too. The first statement is the statement that tells you the intent of the person. And what she's doing is she's trying to get away from it. She will not admit to it. Okay. This was the first time we had exited the golf cart. Friendly community in which we own property with this vehicle, comma, prompting the need for a license plate. What? So that word salad is filled with lots of detail, again, to distract people from her trying to get out of a ticket. In hindsight, I realize how my handling of this matter could be viewed as inappropriate. Could be viewed. It was inappropriate. Wasn't viewed as inappropriate. It was inappropriate, but that was certainly not my intent. Yes, it was. I knew my conversation was on video and my motive was not to put the deputy in an uncomfortable position. Okay, I'm going to call BS on that. Yes, you knew your conversation was on video. It's not like you're admitting anything to us right now. We saw that you knew that. If you're listening right now, you heard that she knew it was on video. She did it despite that because she wanted the video to go away. And we know that her motive was to put that deputy in an uncomfortable position. Well, actually, that's probably true. She did not want to put the deputy in an uncomfortable position because she wanted the deputy to let her go. That's why she did it. I have personally called the Pinellas County Sheriff offering to pay for any potential citation. She personally called. She didn't just called. She personally called. I have expressed great remorse to the mayor, and I apologize to the residents of Tampa who have a reasonable expectation of better judgment from their chief of police. Yes, as someone who has dealt with, comma, taken ownership of and grown from my past mistakes, I know that no one is above the law, including me. Okay, I like that. That last line. Only line that makes sense in any of the statement. I know that no one is above the law, including me. But again, she says, I apologize, but she's not saying what she's apologizing for. She's apologizing to the residents by saying that they expect better things from her. So she didn't admit it. This is a non accountable statement for someone who was caught red handed. So there unethical action, Unethical statement. Now, as an aside, when she was referring to growing from past mistakes, it was reported. And this is what happens when these types of stories happen. According to the Tampa Bay Times, o' Connor was arrested during a traffic stop over three decades ago when she was a rookie police officer. She pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges after. Listen to this. Striking a deputy and disrupting officers from conducting a sobriety test on her then boyfriend. Hey, any guesses on who that then boyfriend is in this. This entire scenario? Yeah, you got that? He's the guy in the golf cart. So back to the beginning when I was kind of correcting myself there. What do you think Mary o' Connor and her husband were doing in the golf cart when they knew they were being pulled over? They were likely getting their story straight. Allegedly. I don't know. I wasn't there. I wasn't sitting in the golf cart. I wasn't in the back seat. But perhaps, maybe there could have been, I don't know, some cocktails before they got in the golf cart. Who knows? I don't know. So maybe they were trying to get out of it because they were drinking and driving, which is One of the reasons why she was really trying to double down because she thought she was getting pulled over for driving under the influence or that her husband would be driving under the influence, driving a golf cart under the influence. Okay, so let's just talk about ethical leadership for a moment there. What does it mean to be an ethical leader? You know, ethical leadership, it's a cornerstone of just trust and sustainability of an entity. Ethical leaders are the ones who act in a way that align with core values of their organization. The core value of the organization of the Tampa Police Department is not to lie and to get away with a crime. You should lead by example. You should demonstrate fairness, respect, integrity, and responsibility in all your actions. And she did not do it. You also need to set an example. It's not enough just to talk about your values and morals. Ethical leadership requires actions. There is no better way to exemplify your actions in ethics. By leading by example, you should show your team that you're committed to being honest and transparent in all of your dealings. You need to walk the walk. And what she should have done, the easiest thing is just take the hit, Take the ticket, Take the ticket. Okay. Chances are the reason why I think she did that, like I said, is because alcohol was involved. Maybe if they were totally sober, she would have just said all my tags and then not done anything. And then she would have paid the tags, maybe a citation for the tags. So I'm just assuming here I'm taking a leap on this one, but that's the reason why I think she did it. She was concerned about the dui. And also, ethical leadership is all about trust and honesty. Okay? Ethical leaders understand the importance of being honest and being open in the communication, having dialogues, having conversations about it. It's having an environment or creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing the truth and being honest. Okay? You want to foster an environment where people feel that they can do the honest and right thing. That deputy was put in a position where he was forced to be unethical. You don't want to do that to staff. There's nothing worse in a leader than when you are forcing your employees to have no choice than to be unethical. It's important in ethical leadership also to stay true to your values. If you set an example through your actions, if you encourage ethical leadership, if you encourage in your employees and ethical actions in your employees, you're showing them that they want to stay true to their values no matter what. But it also means to make the decisions. And sometimes you have to make the hard decisions. But if you can authentically demonstrate your commitment to ethics, everything you do in a leader will shine. It will bleed all through your apartment. Everyone is going to see ethics in action. So being that ethical leader, it just requires more than just talking about your morals or talking about your values. It requires the action and setting example through your behavior. Now, in every podcast I had one indestructible PR tip that helps build or strengthen a reputation. This is an easy one. This is easy if you are in a position where you are a part of an organization. You lead an organization. You are the face of an organization. You are someone where if you do the wrong thing, people will know. Just take the hit. Take the hit. It's going to be a short term consequence, but the long term payoff will be great because you're going to show yourself to be ethical. In the long run, you just have to do the right thing. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.