It’s been over a month since Pamela Darring says she filed a police report alleging she was unlawfully detained by Glenwood village administrator Brian Mitchell.
Darring says she’s still waiting to hear back.
“What he did was an abuse of power,” she claimed.
Darring said she was driving on 183rd Street Aug. 25 when a black SUV tried to cut her off as they passed Halsted Street, where multilane 183rd turns into single-laned Arquilla Drive.
When she did not slow to allow the SUV in, the driver of the SUV got behind her and turned on the blue emergency lights pasted to the top of the front windshield, Darring said.
The car did not look like a regular law enforcement or emergency vehicle, but Darring still pulled over.
“My dad was a retired police officer, so I have the utmost respect for law enforcement, period,” she said.
That’s when the SUV, instead of pulling up behind Darring, pulled to the left of her, rolled down his window and told her “slow down,” Darring said.
After a short interaction in which Darring said she told the man she was not speeding, the man told her to have a nice day and pulled away.
Darring, 53, said she immediately recognized the man driving the SUV was village administrator Brian Mitchell.
“I was kind of shocked like, ‘Brian Mitchell? Really?’” she said, later confirming her identification when she looked up his photo. “The nerve of you.”
Darring went to the police to file a report alleging Mitchell abused his powers by using his lights to unlawfully detain her.
“Why is he putting his lights on me?” she said she asked herself. “I didn’t do anything illegal. I wasn’t speeding, I know my plates and everything are good.”
Mitchell declined to comment when reached by phone, and referred all questions to the Glenwood Police Department.
Detective Paul Schmidt declined to comment and referred all questions to the department chief and deputy chief. Neither could not be reached during multiple attempts to make contact over the phone. Village Trustee Dion Lynch also declined to comment until the “investigation is concluded.”
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A Freedom of Information Act request for the police report is still pending.
In Chapter 12 of the Illinois Vehicle Code, cars are only allowed to have blue warning lights if they are “rescue squad vehicles” or police vehicles of large cities. Vehicles can have blue and red oscillating lights, but those also are reserved for special circumstances, such as when an authorized vehicle is being used to transport organs or assist in mine explosives, the code states.
Local or county emergency vehicles may use blue and red oscillating lights, but according to Glenwood’s Code of Ordinances, emergency work is not outlined as one of the duties of the city administrator.
The law also states that “Any person violating the provisions … of this section who without lawful authority stops or detains or attempts to stop or detain another person shall be guilty of a Class 2 felony.”
Darring says she wants answers as to how this happened and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“As a Black person in America, there are too many times when a simple stop with police can turn into something more tragic,” she said, acknowledging Mitchell is also Black. “Someone needs to be brave enough to stand up say something.”