As part of their sworn duty to keep the public safe, police officers have a responsibility to observe the highest standards in their own conduct — and to face the same consequences as ordinary citizens if they fall short.
Northampton police say one of their own, Officer Andrew Carney, was treated just like any other driver when he was cited for running a stop sign in a May 2015 accident but then released without being charged for driving drunk. We’re not so sure.
According to internal records detailing the May 17 accident and its aftermath, Carney had spent an off-duty afternoon boating and drinking with friends before getting in his black Audi A5 and departing Oxbow Marina. A few minutes later, he failed to stop at a stop sign and collided with another car, causing substantial damage to both vehicles.
A fellow Northampton officer, Jared LaValle, responded to the scene and was told by the other driver that Carney “was flying” and “came out of nowhere.” It’s a wonder that nobody was hurt, or worse.
LaValle found his colleague at fault and issued him a citation, the records show. But for reasons that remain unclear, LaValle did not test Carney’s sobriety at the scene. Nor, apparently, did he or Carney immediately alert their supervisors at the Police Department. That notification didn’t come until 35 minutes after the accident, when Carney reported the accident to a supervisor — a notification required by department regulations. By that time, the other driver had left and the two damaged vehicles had been removed.
Jody Kasper, who has since been promoted to chief, was a captain on duty that day. When she learned of the accident, she told Gazette reporter Stephanie McFeeters last week, she ordered the supervising officer at the scene to test Carney’s sobriety. “ ‘Give him a field sobriety test, arrest him if he fails,’ ” Kasper said. “Those were my direct words.” That officer, Sgt. Brian Letzeisen, put Carney through a series of field tests but did not arrest his fellow officer. “The impairment did not appear significant enough for me to affect an arrest for Operating Under the Influence of Alcohol,” he wrote in a report.
After determining that they would not charge Carney with a crime, police brought him to the station for a breath test, which showed he had a 0.22 blood-alcohol level — nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08. Later, more than two hours after the accident, a second test found a 0.15 level. Carney admitted to drinking at least nine alcoholic beverages, Rolling Rock beer and white wine, before taking to the road.
Carney was placed on unpaid administrative leave for a month after an internal investigation found that he violated department rules with conduct unbecoming an officer, being “untruthful” in an interview and committing “the criminal offense of operating a motor vehicle on a public right of way with a BAC above 0.08.” He also broke the rule requiring him to immediately report an accident to a supervisor, Kasper said, a rule in place “because we would never want a friend investigating a friend.”
From the outside, it looks like that’s exactly what happened. We can’t say with certainty that someone who is not a police officer but got drunk and caused a serious accident would have faced tougher scrutiny. But the circumstances raise a fair question about whether Carney avoided a drunken driving charge because of the badge he carried — and tarnished — that day.
Kasper said the breath test results can’t be used against Carney because they came from an administrative investigation, not the normal accident investigation. Because Carney passed the field sobriety tests, she said, he would have faced no further testing or questioning if he had been a civilian.
We can only hope that Kasper and her department are asking tough questions of the two officers who investigated Carney after the accident, and of themselves. First on the list: Will Northampton police hold their own to the same standards as the rest of us?