This is the second time in two weeks that an off-duty officer from the department has been arrested
November 30, 2023 at 18:34
People run from the police every day but it’s relatively rare to hear of an officer running from law enforcement themselves. That’s exactly what just happened in Virginia though and the off-duty officer in question ended up causing a crash while fleeing police. Now, he’s facing a felony charge and is the second officer arrested in November over sketchy driving practices.
Peter McCauley, 25, was a law enforcement officer with the Washington, D.C. police department, but now that’s in doubt. Officers from the Virginia State Police booked him last Wednesday after they said he fled a traffic stop. Authorities claim to have seen McCauley doing 95 mph in a 55 mph zone in his Tesla.
They say that when they attempted a traffic stop that he fled. The pursuing officer claims that he was losing ground to McCauley despite doing 119 mph at one point during the chase. In fact, police only caught up and arrested McCauley after he ran a red light and was hit by a Honda. A female passenger in McCauley’s car was hurt along with the female driver of the car that hit McCauley’s Tesla. Both women went to the hospital for minor injuries.
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McCauley was arrested and charged with felony eluding. “MPD’s Internal Affairs Division responded and immediately revoked the officer’s police powers and placed him on non-contact status,” the department said in a statement to the New York Post. “The incident is under investigation by MPD’s Internal Affairs Division.” That only adds to the division’s workload as McCauley is the second officer this month to allegedly break the law from behind the wheel.
Back on November 11th, Officer John Bewley was off duty but reportedly driving under the influence in his patrol car. Police ended up arresting him for DUI, obstructing justice, and for resisting arrest. It turns out that he allegedly only ended up arrested because he showed up to another traffic stop involving his girlfriend who also went to jail for DUI that day. Neither case has gone to trial at this stage.
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