Harassment by an Off-Duty Officer

[Florida Lady]

My question involves police conduct in the State of: Florida

We have a neighbor who is a policeman in another small town. He has even been Officer of the Year on that force several times. Up until last December my husband and he got along, with my husband fixing his lawn mower, boat, and other things on numerous occasions.

Last Labor Day the policeman threw a party that got way out of hand. He got very drunk. We were home at the time. This policeman yelled down the street at a brand new family who had just moved in, barraging them with insults. Later that evening he walked down the street and mooned another neighbor, his wife, his daughter, and his mother as they were coming home from dinner. Around 10pm that night he took his riding mower and ran through our bushes and flowers on the side of our yard and almost hit our a/c. The next day he denied everything, but our next door neighbor who was with him and attended the party verified he did do it.

About a week later, this policeman attended a party at our next door neighbor's house. Again, he was drunk and publicly urinated in the neighbor's backyard, not even trying to cover up. I took his picture, but it blurred and did not come out that well.

I went to a trooper's home who lives in our neighborhood and asked for advice how to handle this. This policeman is almost always drunk while not on duty, and he doesn't even remember his behavior. The trooper said we (the neighbors) should not have to live with this. He would think about the best way to handle it and get back with us the following day.

Instead, he went to the policeman and told him my husband had come to see him.

My husband is disabled in his back is on SS Disability. The policeman knows this. My husband is restricted in what he can and cannot do, but can do some things.

Now, this policeman comes down the street and photographs everything my husband does. He will stand in the street wanting my husband to see him taking pictures, then just smirks at him, evidently trying to antagonize a confrontation. My husband ignores him.

Because the trooper went to the policeman, we felt afraid of what the policeman would do. So we called his superiors and reported it. I don't believe they really did anything.

My husband has become afraid to go out into our yard and do anything. We don't want to escalate the situation, but we are prisoners in our home.

What can we do????

[jk]

what makes you think it will ever be anything more than the guy acting like an ass trying to intimidate you?

It is not illegal to take pictures of the neighbor, his house, his yard or anything else one can see from a legal vantage point.

I would either ignore him or call the police and make a report. It doesn't appear he has done anything illegal at this point so the police may decline to make a report on the issue.

You should have called the police and reported the damage to your yard when it happened or called the police and reported the public nudity (I haven't checked as to what is and isn't legal in Florida. There is actually at least one state where what he did may not have been illegal.) I understand your intent of contacting the trooper and apparently his best action was one of speaking with the cop about the situation. I don't see that as a bad step on your part and not on the troopers part either. It just sounds like the cop is an ass and probably always will be.