The Facebook group is called Correctional Officer Life and it is filled with over 40,000, where some members believe their badge grants extra rights and allows them to violate traffic laws.
The Correctional Officer Life group was created as a safe haven for correction officers to vent, ask questions, and support each other within their “brotherhood” and “sisterhood.”
Quezo Finesse, who is a state employee within Tennessee according to his Facebook, made a post on February 19, asking the group what their thoughts were on correctional officers being pulled over.
The responses on the post were met with conflicting views.
While there were a few that believed that officers should be treated as everyone else or even held to higher standards, some did not feel the same way.
Facebook user Fidel John C Consigliere commented on the post that “professional courtesy is a must.”
Consigliere’s profile says he currently lives in Cuba, but posts in May 2015 show he had access to Marshall County, NC program used during police stops. We have blacked out information that could possibly be misused.
Consigliere also believes that if an officer pulls another officer over for a bad tag, they are part of the problem.
Jorge Salazar also commented on the post stating that professional courtesy only falls under the umbrella of law enforcement referencing ”the Brother/Sister Hood.”
According to Salazars Facebook account, he is originally from Corpus Christi, Texas. There is a 20-year-veteran officer within Laredo Police Department with the same name. Photography is Not a Crime was unable to confirm if they are one in the same.
Salazar tells someone that he thinks missed the point he was trying to make, which is he believes badges grant extra rights, that it has to doo with the brotherhood and sisterhood of law enforcement.
There were some officers who called out fellow officers in the group.
Probation Correctional officer Brandi Marie Krall said:
“WE SHOULD NOT HAVE A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT THAT WE FEEL EXCLUDES US FROM DOING THE RIGHT THING. IT’S CALLED INTEGRITY AND ETHICS. THE PUBLIC SEES LAW ENFORCEMENT AS THIS BROTHER OR SISTERHOOD CODE OF SILENCE. THE PUBLIC SEES A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY ARE EXEMPT FROM FOLLOWING THE RULES. HENCE THE MISTRUST.”
Consigliere tells Krall that he will continue to use his discretion and let other officers off the hook when they create a “minor booboo.”
Consigliere also believes other officers he works with would agree with cutting officers slack.
Retired Correctional Officer Chris Gaboury commented that laws need to be followed but brotherhood should matter.
Another Facebook comment said that officers who write up other officers are not worthy of a badge and that minor infractions should be overlooked. The account that made the comment appears to be an account with a fake name.
A comment left by Connor Jernigan also believes that officers should have professional courtesy, but it depends on the circumstances.
Facebook user Claudio Silva also commented saying:
“IF THEY ONLY KNEW HOW WE TREAT COP KILLERS … THEY WOULD PROBABLY SHOW THE SAME COURTESY THAT THEY SHOWED THEIR OWN…..”
Silva is no longer a law enforcement employee, according to his Linkedin profile.
There were also a dozen comments saying that they have received professional courtesy and given a warning once the officer realizes they work within corrections facilities.
The Correctional Officer Life group went viral for the Feeling Cute Challenge last year, where two dozen officers were either terminated or reprimanded for violating their social media policies by posting a picture of themselves in uniform.
One of the officers that got reprimanded was Williamson County Correctional officer Jordon Tacoma Cotto. He uploaded a picture of himself captioning it, “felt cute… Might wrestle and inmate later… idk.”
On February 19, Cotto uploaded another picture of himself in the group, in uniform saying he just finished testing at his deputy academy.
There were around two dozen officers on the post saying similar comments as Officer Krall and that if they were to be pulled over, they would not try to use their badge to get out of a ticket.