MARK KIESLING: No excuses, just results in Lake Station crash

Sometimes the way a police officer who is also a city councilman is treated after a traffic accident astounds you.

Such was the case with Lake County sheriff's police Officer Harry Pedroza Jr., 39, who smashed his car Monday because he was going too fast around a corner.

Pedroza, who is also a Lake Station city councilman, did not do the thing we have seen all too often in Lake County.

He did not use his badge or his office to try to get special treatment, nor did Lake Station police officers -- who were ticketing the guy who approves their salaries and benefits -- give him any special treatment.

According to Lake Station's top cop, Mike Stills, Pedroza cooperated. Assistant Chief John McDaniel confirmed this, and said Pedroza was found not to have been drinking or talking on a cellphone or anything else that could have contributed to the crash.

"Everything was above board," Stills said.

It's kind of amazing, particularly given that Pedroza was in uniform -- although in his private vehicle -- at the time of the crash.

Granted, it wasn't something that could have been covered up easily. He smacked into a parked car, which pushed it into a woman who ended up on the hood.

You can bet she would have had something to say had police whisked away Officer and Councilman Pedroza. But in Lake County, who knows if anyone would have listened to her?

Interestingly enough, Pedroza was cited for a couple of things for which he certainly should have known better, if not as a councilman then surely as a police officer.

He was driving with the wrong license plate on his car -- it belongs to another auto he owns -- and he did not have insurance as the state requires, police say.

Really? You know better than that, Officer Pedroza.

But as much as you'd kind of like to smack him upside the head for ignorance or, more likely, skirting the law, let those of us without sin cast the first stone.

Maybe he has half a dozen cars and simply made a mistake when putting the plates on. The insurance? Maybe he had it, but the policy lapsed and the renewal is sitting under a pile of papers on his desk at home.

No, they're not excuses. They are explanations. Will he get nailed by a judge for not having insurance and for having the incorrect plate on his car?

The way things have been going, it's likely.

But in Lake County, where we have seen police act as hired killers and wife beaters, where they have badged themselves out of uncountable drunken driving arrests and use their office to void their own parking tickets, this is refreshing.

Lake Station police deserve kudos for not kowtowing to one of the guys who runs their town, and Pedroza deserves some as well for cooperation rather than confrontation.

Maybe it will catch on. But I'm not holding my breath.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.