Jacksonville City Councilman apologizes for behavior during traffic stop

Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie Gaffney apologized during Tuesday night’s city council meeting for his behavior during a traffic stop last week.

“If I offended anybody that live in Jacksonville for my behavior, please forgive me, because I’m not perfect,” said Gaffney at Tuesday’s meeting.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said one of their officers pulled Gaffney over because the tag on the car he was driving had been reported stolen.

As Action News Jax previously reported, Gaffney told the officer "the license plate was never stolen off of his vehicle and he does not remember why he would have made the original report."

But another JSO report from March 2016 said Gaffney walked into a JSO substation and told officers his car tag was stolen after he received multiple red light camera citations.

The Fraternal Order of Police said body camera footage from the stop showed Gaffney trying to intimidate the officers who stopped him.

“Councilman Gaffney abused his position as a sitting city council member and tried to intimidate those police officers into not doing what they were doing," said FOP President Steve Zona. "He threatened them with the sheriff, he threatened them with a chief. He actually called a chief and put a chief on the telephone and handed it to one of the police officers during the traffic stop,” Zona said.

Zona asked JSO to investigate whether Gaffney falsely reported his license plate stolen to avoid paying citations.

Zona also said body camera footage showed that City Councilwoman Katrina Brown pulled up and accused the officers of racial profiling.

During Tuesday's council meeting, Brown said she would not apologize.

“I don’t think I did anything wrong, so I’m not going to apologize,” said Brown. “As an elected official, I am responsible for the constituents I represent. And I am supposed to ask questions.”

Brown denied intimidating officers and accused Zona of trying to intimidate her.

JSO’s 2016 report said Gaffney told officers he notified the owner of McGauley’s Mobile Auto Services that the tag had been stolen from his car while it was parked there.

Action News Jax called the business owner, Rod McGauley, on Monday.

McGauley said on Monday that he was not familiar with the alleged theft, wanted to call Gaffney, and would call Action News Jax back.

He did not.

When Action News Jax showed up at McGauley’s repair shop on Tuesday for more information, McGauley grabbed our crew’s camera, then broke the camera’s lens filter with his elbow.

McGauley never asked Action News Jax to leave the property, and Action News Jax reported the camera damage to JSO.

Cox Media Group