Culver Officer Candidly Assesses Hoopla and Evidence of LAPD Arrest Tapes

Who is he rooting for in the videos?

What is the mood inside the Police Dept.?

From video evidence, can you judge guilt or innocence?

Are the videos an attempt to undermine the police? Or do the suspects, invariably non-whites, have valid gripes?

“You cannot tell from a video what happened,” the Culver City officer told thefrontpageonline.com. “You need more. You need to compare what you are looking at with the officer’s report at the time of the arrest. That is one way to make a judgment because you don’t know what has been left out of the video. We deal with videotapes all the time. From our perspective, if we have evidence on videotape, it is a good indication our suspicions are correct. But, and I must emphasize, evidence on videotape is not sufficient. It is not clear-cut. We need more. If we see a person on tape who looks like the suspect, it is not proof. We will need other evidence. We know the tape is not proof of what occurred.”

Deciding Under Pressure

Lawyers, officers and their defenders say that it is impossible for a non-officer to fully appreciate the life-threatening danger confronting cops when they attempt to arrest suspected felons. But the Culver City officer did not make that argument. Instead, he reasoned his way through the circumstances. How can you tell, he was asked, how fairly such a video represents what actually happened. “By comparing it against the report the officer filed at the time of the arrest,” he said. “Every time force is used, there should be an investigation and a written report.” The Culver City officer said he felt badly for his brother officers at the LAPD. “These videos turned up,” he said, “just as the LAPD was getting over the flashlight incident.” (He was referring to the flashlight beating of car-theft suspect Stanley Miller on June 23, ’04.)

One Piece of the Story

All arrest videos are subject to suspicion for several reasons, the officer said. “I hate to use the phrase ‘taken out of context,’” he said. “But this is what we are dealing with. Just as you cannot judge guilt or innocence merely from a video, you don’t know what the parties were doing before the video started. Videos almost never start at the very beginning. You can’t tell where you are coming in to the video, the middle or the end. More importantly, you don’t know what went on before the video started. The angle of the video camera is crucial, too.” A football fan, the officer talked about the role that instant replay cameras in the NFL games he watches every Sunday. “The referee makes a call that is challenged,” he said. “One camera angle leaves room for doubt about a violation. Another angle seems to show more clearly what happened. When we are making an arrest at an intersection, if there are witnesses on all four corners, each will have a different perspective about what is happening. That is very important. In addition, when a video turns up, you can’t know what was left out. In the Inglewood case where an officer was shown slamming a suspect against a car, the officer said he was responding to the suspect trying to grab his testicles. The video did not show that.”

Effect of Videos on Police Officers

What is the mood in the Culver City Police Dept. when an LAPD beating video finds its way into the media. “First,” he said, “it makes you more aware that in use-of-force cases, somebody may be watching. That’s a good thing. But that should not really be the way it is. You should be professional enough that you should not have to worry somebody may be looking. But it is another reminder that the report you file at the time of an arrest absolutely must be accurate and complete. When a lawyer gets hold of the tape, compares it to the officer’s report and finds something was left out, he will call the officer a liar for not including everything that happened. Defense attorneys will use this as a way to make money. That is how important filing a complete report is. The officer may have forgotten. It’s not always easy to remember everything that occurred under those kinds of circumstances. But you have to be clear, accurate and comprehensive about how many times you used force.”

A Rush to Judgment

The Culver City officer said when an LAPD beating-arrest video shows up on his television screen at home, “bad as it may look, you can’t judge innocence or guilt. I just say to myself that I hope everything was done the proper way.” Law enforcement and lay people, the officer maintained, bring different priorities to the arrest videos. One is more emotional and the other analytical. “When someone comes upon an accident scene, he will look at it and say ‘That’s grisly.’ But I will look at it and want to know, how did it get to this point?” What about the motivation of the authors of the homemade videos? Is it an attempt to embarrass cops when they think no one is looking or are the videos intended to be proof of the maltreatment of minorities? “Both,” said the officer.

Postscript

What is his reaction when he watches a beating video? “I always pull for the police officer,” said the police officer, “until I see all of the evidence. You have to be careful. You need to maintain your objectivity. That is very important.”

The officer thought a little longer. His answers throughout had been notable for their lack of cynicism although sour feelings occasionally leaked. i “When I see one of these videos,” he said, “I am a little disappointed. But I am one to give the officer the benefit of the doubt until I can find out the whole story. I also am disappointed the video is being broadcast on TV before anyone has heard the whole story. People are quick to judge. Months later, when the officer is cleared, that report will not be played up nearly as much. And when people hear about it, they will say, ‘They’re just covering up for him.’”