May issues apology letters, seeks community dialogue
- June 30, 2015
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / government
A traffic stop that involved Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May last week certainly has stirred community discussion.
Now the man at the center of that discussion wants to move the community conversation forward about the relationship between citizens and law enforcement.
May, the only black commissioner, was stopped while driving on West Gregory Street about 7:20 a.m. near his office. The stop came the day after heated discussion that led to the Confederate flag being removed from city and county property, replaced by the State of Florida flag. That action was spurred in part in the wake of the killing of nine people at a Bible study in a historic black church Charleston, S.C.
Pensacola Police Officer Caitlyn Grantham, a white woman, conducted the stop. Grantham has been a police officer since June 2011.
The traffic stop, recorded by the officer’s dashboard camera, shows May demanding to know why he was stopped and asking for a supervisor to come to the scene. It shows Grantham repeatedly ask for May’s identification and his vehicle registration — and tell him he faces arrest if he continues to refuse to provide them.
Ultimately no citation was issued in the incident.
May has apologized for being irate. Today he sent a letter of apology to Grantham. He also sent a letter to Jeff Brown, head of the Fraternal Order of Police, apologizing and asking to set a time and place to discuss ways to move forward from the incident in a conversation about the relationship between law enforcement and the community.
That letter is copied to Mayor Ashton Hayward, incoming PPD Chief David Alexander, Pensacola City Council and Lee Tyree, head of the Police Benevolent Association. Read both here.
Pensacola Police officials have declined to comment on the incident specifically, but PPD Capt. Tommi Lyter did note that citizens are within their rights to ask for a supervisor to come to the scene of such a stop.
In fact, that is advice that is routinely given at public meetings and town hall-like events when the issue of police-community relations arises, Lyter said.
Conducting traffic stops is taught at the police academy, in field training and is reinforced throughout an officer’s career, Lyter said.
PPD’s General Order P-1 regarding Traffic Enforcement — the rules about how to handle traffic issues — was revised by outgoing Chief Chip Simmons in 2013 and 2015. It specifically targets traffic crashes, but also goes over keeping the roadways safe.
Tickets are left to an officer's discretion, said PPD spokeswoman Cindy West.
The full general order is linked here.
Pensacola Police officials have declined to comment on the incident specifically, but PPD Capt. Tommi Lyter did note that citizens are within their rights to ask for a supervisor to come to the scene of such a stop.
In fact, that is advice that is routinely given at public meetings and town hall-like events when the issue of police-community relations arises, Lyter said.
Conducting traffic stops is taught at the police academy, in field training and is reinforced throughout an officer’s career, Lyter said.
PPD’s General Order P-1 regarding Traffic Enforcement — the rules about how to handle traffic issues — was revised by outgoing Chief Chip Simmons in 2013 and 2015. It specifically targets traffic crashes, but also goes over keeping the roadways safe.
Tickets are left to an officer's discretion, said PPD spokeswoman Cindy West.
The full general order is linked here.
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