OPS 2020-0006 · February 23–24, 2020

Hasanex Mendez Figueroa

Hispanic motorist on his way home from a graveyard shift was pulled over by the same officer on two consecutive nights, once for a license-plate cover and once for unverified "speeding." Complainant said he never received a radar signal on his detector and felt he was being targeted.

Racial profiling
Complainant
Hasanex Mendez Figueroa
Hispanic male, age 24
Officer(s) named
  • Officer Douglas Jewell
Disposition
No Complaint — Info Only (May 6, 2020)

What the file shows

Mendez Figueroa filed a written complaint via the city's online Traffic Complaint Form on Feb 24, 2020 at 5:44 a.m., stating Jewell forced him to break his license-plate cover off on the side of the road at 3:30 a.m. or be fined $139, and accused him of smelling of alcohol after he passed a sobriety test. The complainant ended his statement: "I want to be left alone by Officer Jewell unless I am truly breaking the law."

Sgt. Valvick's running sheet records that after he spoke with Mendez Figueroa, the complainant "no longer wanted to pursue" the complaint and "did not want me to speak with Officer Jewell about it." Valvick then conducted a "very brief" conversation with Jewell, who said he hadn't realized he had stopped the same car twice. No bias-based-policing classification was added.

The file's final disposition is "No Complaint — Info Only." Beazizo's chain-of-command note instructs Valvick: "Remember to keep summary simple and short."

Why this file matters

Two stops, two nights, same Hispanic motorist, same officer who did not even remember stopping him the night before. Closed on the basis of the complainant's reluctance to continue, with no review of Officer Jewell's stop demographics and no Bias-Based Policing review — even though it is the textbook profile for one.