Dallas

16 Arlington Officers Surrender Licenses Over Falsified Traffic Stops

More than a dozen Arlington police officers surrendered their peace officer's licenses to avoid criminal charges for falsely reporting traffic stops, according to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.

Five of the officers, Dane Peterson, Dace Warren, Brandon Jones, Chris McCright and Chris Dockery, were indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury last week for Tampering with a Governmental Record.

The DA's office said Wednesday the charges against those five officers were dismissed after they agreed to give up their licenses and that they consider the cases closed.

Those five are among 16 officers in Arlington who were placed on leave last year after supervisors discovered records of traffic stops that never actually occurred.

The other 11 had previously agreed to surrender their licenses in exchange for having their cases dismissed. All 16 have either resigned from the force or were fired, according to a report by The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

It's not clear why the traffic reports were falsified. Defense Attorney Randall Moore represents three of the former Arllington officers and says they were set up to fail and blames it on a systemic problem within the department. Moore says he presented clear evidence that these arlington officers were forced by supervisors to fullfill a quota for traffic stops and citations.

"You can see where these guys were being pressured to make a certain number of stops and the meaning is clear...they have to have so many or they're not going to get their off duty request approved, negatively evaluated or catch grief from their supervisors," Moore said.  

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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