City Councilman Sobriety Questioned During Traffic Stop

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A Baltimore City Councilman is pulled over for a traffic stop and questioned about drinking and driving.

Ava-joye Burnett with more on the encounter caught on city police body camera.

The City Councilman was not charged for the incident that happened earlier this month, on February 9, at approximately 11:17 p.m. Officers initiated a traffic stop in the area of the 2200 block of McElderry St.

The police department says officers are allowed to use their own judgment based on the situation.

A late night traffic stop with a councilman behind the wheel:

Councilman Robert Stokes: "I am Councilman Stokes."
Officer: "How you doing Councilman Stokes?"

Councilman Robert Stokes, just elected last fall, exited the vehicle to talk with police.

"You got a tag light out, you didn't stop at the stop sign. You failed to use the turn signal..."

Then came this question:
Officer: "You've had a couple drinks tonight?"
Stokes: "No."
Officer: "Yes you have."
Stokes: "I had one beer."
Officer: "I don't believe that."

After a few minutes in his vehicle, the officer returned.

Officer: "You can park your car right here and then you can feel free to either walk down to your girlfriend's house and stay there or call yourself an uber and get home."
Stokes: "But I am not drunk sir."
Officer: "Sir, I can smell a very strong odor of alcohol."
Stokes: "I had a glass of wine."
Officer: "Sir, back of the car you told me it was a beer, now I am hearing inside of the car you told me you had a glass......This is what I am going to say, Mr. Stokes, if you want to argue about this, what I'll do is I'll get back in my car, I'll call someone that's field sobriety trained, and I'll have them come run you through a field sobriety test."
Stokes: "I say I'll take the warning."
Officer: "Okay, so if you are going to take the warning, what you are going to do is you are going to take your car, you're going to park it at one of these spots right here.."
Stokes: "Ok."
Officer: "And you are going to find another way to get home."

In a statement Baltimore Police spokesman T.J. Smith said:

"Officers possess discretion all the time. They are not compelled to give a ticket vs. a warning in traffic situation. For instance, disorderly conduct. That's discretionary. Each person's perspective is going to be different and you aren't compelled to make an arrest at a certain point.

"These officers mainly focus on guns, drugs, and violence. In the circumstances presented, they exercised discretion in the situation which is perfectly reasonable.

The detectives, assigned to the Operational Intelligence Division, handled the situation by using their discretion. These types of interactions happen daily. This just happened to be someone who the community knows. The detectives, clearly, had no idea who Mr. Stokes was and it appeared clear that it didn't matter.

They handled the situation with discretion and professionalism."

WJZ showed the video to an anti-drunk-driving advocate, who said it's hard to tell if the councilman received special treatment."

Danny Brannon, who runs a sobriety program, says officers did the right thing, not letting the councilman drive off.

"He changed his story from one beer to a glass of wine, that throws up red flags for me," he says.

"He didn't maybe didn't think he had enough reason to get him out of the car to do a safety test on him, a field sobriety safety test, but he did make sure he wasn't driving home, and I think in that regard we have to give the cop some credit."

We went to the Councilman's house today, but he wasn't home. He did send us a statement praising police, but he didn't go into details about the incident.

"The footage captured by the body-worn camera mounted to a police officer who recently performed a routine traffic stop of my vehicle is further proof of the importance of this technology that members of the City Council fought so hard to implement. The video shows a routine encounter with police that was handled in a very professional and courteous fashion.

This footage is a shining example of how this technology is taking the suspicion and guesswork out of policing and offering citizens and officers an opportunity to have an impartial airing of the facts surrounding everyday encounters with law enforcement. I would like to thank the hard-working men and women of the Baltimore Police Department for their dedication to the City."

The councilman was given a warning for the traffic violation.

The full video of the incident:

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook