Should Cops Go to Jail For Cowardice?

Former Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy Scot Peterson appears in the courtroom for a hearing at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Thursday, June 6, 2019. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Should a cop in Key Biscayne or elsewhere go to jail if he or she is deemed a coward?

It’s a question on the minds of officers, educators, union leaders and elected officials after a controversial decision in Broward County last week to charge former Broward Deputy Scot Peterson with several crimes for inaction at the rampage last year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead.

Peterson, 56, appeared in court Wednesday on 11 charges, including negligence and child neglect, for not entering the building.

In court papers, prosecutors said five people were killed and four others wounded after Peterson took up his position, gun drawn, but did not go inside. Nikolas Cruz, 20, faces the death penalty if convicted in the Valentine’s Day bloodshed.

President Donald Trump and others have branded Peterson a coward. But opinion in Key Biscayne is mixed.

“I think it’s a very dangerous precedent,” said Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey. “I wonder if it chills officers.”

“I cannot  imagine anything that the criminal justice system can do that would exceed the hell he will live with for the rest of his life,” said Vice Mayor Allison McCormick.

“As long as we as a society continue to focus on what to do after these tragedies occur instead what should be done to prevent them in the first place, this will never get better,” she said.

Key Biscayne Police Chief Charles Press said officers in the Village’s department know their duty.

“We have an absolute duty to respond to a criminal act and take action. What else are we here for? That doesn’t make me a caretaker. It makes me a police officer,” Press said.

Jeff Bell, the president of Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association, said he accepts that Peterson no longer deserves employment as a deputy. But he draws the line at criminal charges. A different local of the same union represents Key Biscayne’s police officers.

“He failed to take proper action. He froze,” Bell said. But he said criminal charges are not justified, and would send a bad message to departments facing recruiting challenges.

The Parkland shooting is especially sensitive for Diane Cellura, principal of the Key Biscayne Community Church Day School and head of the Key Biscayne Principals’ Coalition, because she lives in Parkland. Her daughter was meant to be at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High that day, but as fate would have it she was at another school.

Asked whether prosecutors were right to file charges of child neglect against Peterson for not entering during the shooting, Cellura said ultimately it would be for the courts to decide, but her feelings are mixed: “He was not hired to watch the kids per se, the teachers are there for that, but he was hired to protect them.”  

Cellura says she would love to see armed school safety officers in all schools on Key Biscayne, but there is a lack of resources for that right now. Nonetheless, she assures residents island schools are “very focused on safety.”  

Cellura holds active shooter drills twice a year: a thorough demonstration with staff only, and a lighter lockdown simulation with the students.

It remains to be seen how courts will deal with the criminal charges against Peterson.

“This is a unique prosecution, pushing the bounds of criminal liability,” said David O. Markus, a prominent Miami defense attorney not involved in the case. “While elected prosecutors many times bow to the court of public opinion, our justice system demands that a case like this be tested in a court of law. Legally, this is a tough one for the prosecution.”

Michael Grieco, a defense attorney and state legislator from Miami Beach who is also not involved in the case, agreed prosecutors face an uphill climb.

“Although as a father, legislator and human being I believe that there is no societal defense to cowardice, the law has consistently and recently held that there is no constitutional duty for police to protect us from harm,” Grieco said. “The decision to criminally charge Mr. Peterson, although popular in the court of public opinion, will likely not hold water once formally challenged.”

Instances in which law enforcement officers are accused of mishandling a situation are often dealt with not with criminal charges but with lawsuits seeking damages. Several have already been filed against Peterson.

The negligence charge brought by prosecutors accused Peterson of “reckless indifference” or “careless disregard” for others. Child neglect involves a failure to protect someone under 18 from “abuse, neglect or exploitation.”

But Bell, the police union official, warned of a slippery slope.

“Everyone is worried. Are we going to be next?” Bell said.

“I’m not sticking up for him, because he didn’t do the right thing…[but]…they are trying to criminalize cowardice. They can’t charge someone for it.”

Key News’ Tony Winton and Annali Hayward, along with Associated Press’ Curt Anderson, contributed to this report.