‘Makes me drive faster’: Corrections officer called 911 because he disagreed with citation for randomly honking horn, cops say

A Florida corrections officer ended up on the other side of a jail cell after he allegedly called 911 because he disagreed with a citation for excessively honking his horn for no apparent reason.

A Polk County Sheriff’s deputy was patrolling the area of Avenue G Northwest near Recker Highway in Auburndale around 11:45 p.m. Sunday when he saw a man in a Jeep randomly blaring his horn despite there being no traffic around or other valid reason to do so, an arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime said. The deputy stopped the driver, later identified as 34-year-old Douglas Morse.

When asked why he was randomly honking his horn, Morse allegedly replied “because it makes me drive faster.” The deputy issued a ticket for unlawful use of a horn. Morse “became upset and became verbally abusive about receiving the citation,” the deputy wrote.

After the deputy left, Morse allegedly called 911 to complain about the ticket. The deputy returned to see Morse still on the phone with 911, the affidavit said. He refused commands to hang up and get out of the Jeep, the deputy wrote. Morse also pulled away when the deputy tried to drag him out of the vehicle, the affidavit said.

The deputy eventually got him out of the Jeep but Morse laid on his arms for about a minute before he was placed into handcuffs. Morse was taken to the Polk County Jail on charges of misuse of 911 and resisting arrest without violence. He has since posted bond.

“We expect more professional behavior from those who work in the public service industry. And dialing 911 because you are upset that you received a traffic citation is not only ridiculous, it ties up an emergency line and resources that are designated for those who have true emergencies,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement.

Morse is an officer at the Polk Correctional Institute, which is a prison facility within the Florida Department of Corrections. Deputies alerted the FDOC of Morse’s arrest. FDOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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