Video from police officer’s bodycam appears to show him planting bag of drugs
Video captured by a police officer’s body cam before he was aware it was on appears to show the man planting drugs.
The video, published by the Baltimore Sun, appears to have been captured thanks to a feature which saves the 30 seconds of video prior to the camera being turned on.
The video shows an officer holding a plastic bag – before another officer touches his body camera to make it record, saying, ‘I’m gonna go check here.’
Footage shows officer placing drugs in trash; goes out to street, turns on camera, returns. Cams save 30 sec prior to activation, w/o sound pic.twitter.com/5ZW128lWFM
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) July 19, 2017
The public defender’s office flagged the video, and prosecutors dropped charges against a man who had been in jail since January.
MORE: Police ‘used helicopters to film people having sex and sunbathing naked’
MORE: Police launch appeal to find the mother of baby girl abandoned at bus stop
The police have launched an internal investigation.
Baltimore crime reporter Justin Fenton says what’s unclear is whether the drugs were planted, as the public defender asserts, or whether the police officers were recreating a drug discovery on camera.
What is clear is that the police are aware of how to manipulate bodycam evidence.
