The footage is unforgettable. A sheriff’s deputy is parked on the roadside when a white SUV whizzes by. The radar gun reads 80 mph in a 45. So the deputy pursues the car, flips on his lights, and pulls it over. But he quickly realizes he’s pulled over a city police officer who refuses to present any ID and instead gets back in his car and drives away.

So can police officers legally speed? In the above story, both officers were technically driving over the speed limit. In his pursuit, even the sheriff’s deputy needed to speed and reached 100 mph. So of course police officers can speed, they must sometimes exceed the speed limit to do their duty. Here’s how the Police 1 website explained it for other police officers:

“You have the lawful authority to exceed the speed limit provided you fall under the statutory and departmental policy requirements to do so. That authority is not a permission slip to drive as fast as you want.”

Duane Wolfe, Police1.com

One of the websites commenters put it even more succinctly, “No lights, no speeding!…A cop breaking the law is still breaking the law.” Obviously, in almost any department’s policy, in almost any situation, police are only allowed to speed when necessary–and to use their lights and siren to do so as safely as possible.

Do police officers speed? The story above makes it pretty clear that it happens at least some times. Wolfe explains that certain departments have a culture of “professional courtesy” that prevents them from pulling one another over. Obviously the Orlando police officer who was doing 80 in a 45 was hoping this culture would protect him. But Wolfe urges police officers to, “Never put another cop in that position.”

You can check out the Seminole County Sheriff’s deputy’s body cam footage of the Orlando incident in the video embedded below. Or read on to find out what happened:

The Orlando police officer in the June 2023 video has been identified as Alexander Shaouni. The Orlando Police Department was not impressed with his speeding in a marked patrol car and relieved him of duty while launching an investigation.

What’s more, Shaouni faced a criminal case. Charges included reckless driving, fleeing and eluding law enforcement, and resisting an officer (without violence).

On January 19th, 2024, the OPD announced Shaouni was back on duty, after the resolution of Seminole County criminal case in accordance with department policy.” It added, “The investigation is still in the review stage with Internal Affairs. Anything related to the criminal investigation will have to be directed to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.”

So it sounds like OPD Internal Affairs has not finished its investigation. But we do know the Florida state attorney’s office dropped the case after Shaouni completed a pretrial intervention.

I will also note that a police officer can “pace” your car to estimate its speed. That means traveling at the same speed as you for a given time. And they can pace you while driving in front of you. Multiple drivers have followed a “speeding” police officer down the road, only to get pulled over and hit with a surprising ticket.