SACRAMENTO-
The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department is investigating one of its own after video of a deputy parking in a disabled spot surfaced.
The man who shot the video on his cell phone told FOX40 exclusively he spotted the deputy in that space in front of the Circle K on Hemlock Street near Auburn Blvd. in North Highlands.
“You always park in handicap when you’re not on a call?” The man can be heard saying in the video. “We’re allowed to get breaks,” the deputy replies.
“I saw her parked in the handicapped stall as soon as we pulled up,” the man who wishes to remain anonymous told FOX40. “I hung out by the car to see if she was coming out on a call or if it was a break and apparently it was break.”
On the video, you can hear the man questioning the deputy about why she parked in that spot.
“There’s a parking spot right here though ma’am,” he told the deputy on the video.
“There wasn’t when I came in,” she replied.
FOX40 showed the video to Sacramento Undersheriff James Lewis, who says his deputies should not be parking in those spaces unless it’s an emergency.
“Very disappointed. Frankly… it is completely inconsistent with our values,” Lewis said. “It’s something that as a result of viewing that video will be cause us to initiate an investigation with our Internal Affairs Bureau.”
The disabled spot she parked in is the only one in the Circle K parking lot on Hemlock Street, but there are plenty of other spots which are unmarked.
When the man taking the video asked for the deputy’s name and badge number, she only gave her badge number, 424.
That’s a number the Sheriff’s Department said is accurate, but the agency could not give the deputy’s name.
The department could say she’s been a county employee for 27 years, and a sworn officer for the past 15 years.
“Punishment ranges anywhere from documented counseling all the way to termination,” Lewis said.
The man who shot the video told FOX40 the deputy later pulled up behind his car and ran his car’s plates. He believes this was not the first time the deputy did something like this.
