Caught on camera: A suspected
shoplifter arrested outside a Walmart. That's hardly news. What is - is that
police also handcuffed the person recording a video.
A lakeside Walmart customer
pulled out his cell phone in front of the store on Monday evening to capture
video of Lakeside Police arresting a man suspected of shoplifting. The man
shooting the video, Chris Hoover, didn't expect he'd end up in handcuffs,
too.
LAKESIDE - A Lakeside Walmart
customer pulled out his cell phone in front of the store on Monday evening to
capture video of Lakeside Police arresting a man suspected of shoplifting. The
man shooting the video, Chris Hoover, didn't expect he'd end up in handcuffs,
too.
The video shows two police
officers wrestling a man on the ground. When they get the man in cuffs one
officer realizes there is a camera. During the commotion the officer points at
the camera and says "that phone is evidence. I want it." Hoover then
says "it's mine."
"So he snatched it out of
my hand... I wasn't going to resist. He grabbed my wrist, and then he put me in
cuffs," Hoover said.
Lakeside police would not go on
camera, citing an ongoing investigation. However, they did say they stand by
their officers. They say police have a right to detain someone if they have
video of a crime.
"He said, 'look, you have
two choices,'" Hoover explained. "He said, 'either I will arrest you
right here, right now for obstructing justice, and then we will get a search
warrant, and we will get your phone, and we will get that piece of video as
police evidence.'"
The ACLU of Colorado says
police can get a search warrant but that the phone typically should remain with
the owner until that warrant is obtained.
"Police officers can ask
for a copy or ask for the video, but in the absence of a warrant, to actually
seize somebody's personal property, I don't think police officers can seize it
or threaten to seize it except in the most extreme emergency
circumstances," ACLU Colorado Director Mark Silverstein said.
Hoover eventually gave in. He
sent the officer a copy of the recording via email.
"It made me want to be
angry, but honestly I was scared," Hoover said.
Silverstein says more
regulations may need to be put in place.
"Police departments need
to establish policies and training so that the police officers understand that
the public has a right to take photographs, has a right to make videos and that
police officers only in the most limited of circumstances could even think
about seizing property as so called evidence," he said.
The person suspected of
shoplifting was taken to the hospital following the incident. Hoover says he
may take legal action against the Lakeside Police Department.
