Rookie St. Pete officer resigns over racial slur

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - A St. Petersburg policeman is out of a job after admitting to using a racial slur while responding to a disturbance call.

Levonte Daniels still can’t believe someone who is supposed to protect and serve would be so hurtful and disrespectful.

“We call these people, as far as the police department, to come help us, to come save us, to come do for us,” he said. “But then, like, this is how you feel on the inside, like, do you really want to help me?”

Monday night, Daniels recorded a video of Officer Michael Naples cursing. Then, Naples called Daniels the n-word.

“You can hear my reaction. I’m completely thrown off by the fact that a police officer, to my face, just called me a n***** in 2018,” Daniels told FOX 13 News.

The ordeal started when Daniels and his fiancé called police about a dispute with a pizza delivery driver. Officer Naples wrote Daniels a ticket and that's when things got heated.

After the incident, Daniels reported it to the police department and an investigation was opened.

Naples had only been on the force for 11-months, but he resigned from his job Tuesday afternoon.

“When the supervisor called him, Officer Naples, to verify what happened on the call, Officer Naples right away apologized and said, 'Yes, I’m sorry. I did use profanity. I did use a racial slur,” said Chief Anthony Holloway.

The chief says behavior like Naples' will not be tolerated on the force, explaining if Naples had not resigned, he would have been terminated.

“That’s what we expect from officers, to be professional at all times,” Holloway said.

Daniels and his fiancé say they posted the video of the interaction with Naples online in hopes it would bring awareness to the racism that is still happening in this community.

“That was a slave word, that’s not okay,” said Daniels.