Officers caught on video running through stop sign

More than 125,000 people worldwide have watched a pair of YouTube videos of Delray Beach officers running a stop sign outside the police station.

The videos show police cars, SUVs, a crime-scene van and a SWAT vehicle all failing to stop at the sign, which filters into a public street at Southwest Fourth Avenue. Of the dozens of vehicles recorded, some didn’t slow down at all, while others slowed but did not come to a complete stop.

A spokesman for Delray Police said Tuesday that Chief Jeff Goldman is aware of the footage and has spoken with his command staff to remind officers to come to a full stop at the sign in the parking lot.

Mayor Cary Glickstein reiterated the chief spoke with officers and said he’s sure police “got the message” that the stop sign is “still a stop sign.”

“All public safety officers need to lead by example in all areas of public safety,” he said.

City officials declined to comment further. So it was unclear why the department didn’t ticket officers instead of issuing a reminder about the stop sign.

The first YouTube video was published Dec. 16 to an account named “Restore American Liberty.”

The recording was made by a man who sat in the police

parking lot, at 300 W. Atlantic Ave. He recorded officers while he waited to pick up his wife, a department employee.

In a recording of a Nov. 30 encounter outside the police station, the man told police he was waiting to pick up his wife, but declined to provide them identification. He told officers he was recording them because he often watches vehicles run the stop sign while waiting for his wife.

The Sun Sentinel was unable to reach the man. A police report about the incident doesn’t identify him, and police declined to identify his wife.

In addition to showing police rolling through the stop sign, the Nov. 30 video depicts as many as nine officers questioning the man with his son parked in a Chevy pickup on police property.

Delray Police received a call about the man recording officers who were exiting from the west gate, according to a police report.

The officers explained they got a report about “suspicious behavior” and were concerned, given the current social climate surrounding police, that he was recording the department. Officer safety has been at the forefront in the last year after the killings of officers across the country.

Goldman said in a statement he would expect any of his officers to act in the same way as those in the video.

“These officers must do what they can to evaluate the situations and determine whether those individuals pose any threat to the public. In this case, they were successful, and the encounter ended without incident.”

A second YouTube video published Dec. 29 shows more than 20 police vehicles failing to come to a complete stop.

The relevant section of state law requires drivers to stop “at the point nearest the intersecting roadway where the driver has a view of approaching traffic on the intersecting roadway before entering the intersection.”