UPDATE: Full Dash Video Shows New Side of Utica Police Evidence Planting Story SHARE: Tweet </noscript> In 1955, the Los Angeles Police Department conducted a contest to come up with a new motto for its police academy. Officer Joseph S. Dorobek submitted “To Protect and to Serve,” which not only became the academy’s official motto, but it became the unofficial motto for departments all across the country. In an era when all bad police misdeeds end up on YouTube or elsewhere on the Internet, the “To protect and to serve” motto has never been so tested. Between pepper-sprayings and unnecessary brutality and arrests over videotaping and routine traffic stops gone wrong, it’s unclear just who many police departments are protecting and serving. In clip after clip, it doesn’t appear to be the citizenry. An 11-month-old incident from a traffic stop in Utica, New York appeared as if it were the latest incident of authority going too far. Two officers can be seen on the silent dash cam video frisking a black couple in an SUV at the corner Clinton Place and Oneida Streets. At one point (about :59 in), an officer reaches into his back pocket, pulls out a bag filled with an unknown substance and places it into the vehicle. He then emerges from the car with a baggie. </noscript> The story blew up the social bookmarking site Reddit. We reported on the 1:40 clip and the preliminary story. But a look at the full dash cam video tells a different story. “The 1:40 portion of the video being shown on social media sites on the internet shows a Utica Police officer taking a baggie from his pocket and putting it, apparently, on the seat of the vehicle he’d just pulled over,” WKTV reported. “Earlier in the video, in a portion not shown on all the social media sites, the officer’s empty hand can be seen going in the driver’s jacket pocket, pulling out a baggie. Utica Police Chief Mark Williams says the matter was thoroughly investigated.” “He’s going into the car with it and that’s what he’s doing, it’s cold out and he’s basically separating the drugs from both defendants,” Chief Williams told WKTV. The Utica Phoenix, which came into possession of the abridged clip last week, first reported the story: The occupants, a woman and a man, are out of the car when frisked by the officers. It appears that a plastic bag is removed from the handcuffed male occupant while he is being frisked. The woman, who is clearly distraught and pleading, is also frisked by the male officer, at one point exposing her underwear and bare backside to the camera. Initially her hands are free, but after the search, whereupon the officer seems to find something folded in what appears to be a piece of paper, she too is hand cuffed behind her back. She then remains standing behind the vehicle. The SUV continues being searched by the one or other of the officers and at one point one of the officers, gestures for the woman to be taken from view of the other officer. She is lead away from view. This same officer who motioned to have the woman removed from view, returns to the passenger side of the car and is clearly seen reaching for and then removing a pouched plastic bag from his back pocket, its contents are not clear. It seems he then drops the bag, bends down to retrieve it, then returns with it to the interior of the car. Phoenix publisher Cassandra Harris-Lockwood wrote that Venice Ervin, chairman of the Legal Redress Committee of the NAACP, discussed the video with Utica Police Chief Mark W. Williams. The officers have been identified in the video as James Holt and Paul Paladino. Neither officer has released a statement at this time. The Utica Police Department is also facing scrutiny from the public at large for dragging its feet on filing charges against 31-year-old New York State Trooper Jessie Miller, who kicked down some random couple’s front door and started a fight with the male resident of the home on Saturday night. As of this moment, there have still not been any charges filed against the state trooper.
Sam H 5pts PS...what else did he put in his pocket? For all we know, he put that dude's money in his pocket and it never came out of his pocket. I just find it incredible cops put any kind of evidence in their pocket. Right there is enough to throw out the evidence against that guy. That's how stuff gets contaminated. He probably would put bloody gloves in his pocket.
Sam H 5pts So what you are suggesting is that whatever the guy had on him they put it in that bag? Then put the bag in his back pocket. From what I saw, it didn't appear he had that much on him. Most likely simple possession. I still have a hard time with the cop putting it in his pocket. I would think they would have some kind of evidence locker in the cruiser. Something like a small lockbox or something. Anyways, what I found odd was they pulled him over for running a stop sign I believe? Who the heck gets handcuffed 10 seconds after being pulled over for running a stop sign? I find that the most disturbing part of the video. Do you honestly think you would get handcuffed within a few seconds after being pulled over? What possible reason was there for, what appears to me, this illegal search anyways? I would like to know what the probable cause was for them to pull him out of the car that quickly, then handcuff him, then search his person and car? That's some real quick probable cause they made. Unless the guy confessed? I can't hear any sound so I don't know what he said. I also think there is something wrong with the video. Why can't we see the complete left side? Those dashcams are wide angle. And what kind of cops pull that close to a stopped vehicle.