Recent news regarding two Georgia police officers has caused both national outrage and the termination of the officers’ positions.
An investigation of bodycam footage revealed that the police officers based a woman’s arrest on a coin toss app. The incident occurred at a traffic stop in the city of Roswell in April.
Roswell Police Chief Rusty Grant released a statement confirming that the officers had been fired. Grant said:
[They] engaged in conduct on or off duty which adversely affects the efficiency of the department and has a tendency to destroy public respect for the employee or the department. This isn’t a police procedure, to bring a coin flip — whether it’s an app or an actual coin toss — that’s not part of that decision making to decide to take someone’s freedom.”
Grant also assured that their behavior goes directly against the core values and ideals of the Roswell police department.
The name of the woman who was detained by the officers is Sarah Webb. Webb was stopped because she was speeding, as she was late to her job at a hair salon.
Webb’s charges were dismissed in early July. After she was released, Webb stated via a phone interview with NBC:
“These are people who are supposed to protect us, and instead are treating our freedom and our lives like games. It’s disgusting. It’s scary to think police officers do stuff like this.”
The video footage of the officers’ actions has already been released to the public. In the footage, the officers can be seen discussing what to do regarding Webb’s case. At the time of Webb’s arrest, the officers did not have velocity detection equipment, and Webb didn’t have any previous tickets. As such, they decided to leave the question of her freedom up to an arbitrary coin toss.
Webb was not informed of their actions at the time, only discovering this disturbing information three days before her court case when she was contacted by an NBC affiliate.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons
