"A Utah police officer [Jeff Payne] who was caught on video roughly handcuffing a nurse because she refused to allow a blood draw was fired Tuesday in a case that became a flashpoint in the ongoing national conversation about police use of force."
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown made the decision after an internal investigation found evidence Detective Jeff Payne violated department policies when he arrested nurse Alex Wubbels and dragged her out of the hospital as she screamed on July 26, said Sgt. Brandon Shearer, a spokesman for the department.
Attorney Greg Skordas has said Payne served the department well for nearly three decades and questioned whether his behavior warranted termination. He couldn't immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Click here to read the entire story
Utah cop fired after arresting nurse who wouldn't draw blood
Some videos on youtube
Utah officer wants to apologize for nurse's controversial arrest
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday October 11 2017, @07:17PM (3 children)
Police unions are the lobbying and political front for departments that in many cases have devolved into armed gangs, or at the very least ignore or protect the "bad apples" within.
Rape, murder, assault, drugs, "asset forfeiture", you can get away with it all as a cop.
The police unions will complain about any level of accountability. It isn't enough that the officers are on paid vacation and will likely not be punished. It's also important to protect the officers from any consequences that their own actions, as documented by video, could possibly lead to. We wouldn't want to hurt their widdle feelings, now would we?
If someone else, including the nurse, had managed to document the event with a smartphone or bodycam, it would be well within their rights to release that footage ASAP, regardless of any investigation. Keeping videos secret allows incidents like this to be swept under the rug. Plenty of people have been subject to far worse at the hands of the police with no recourse. Today, there are many bodycams, but they can still mysteriously malfunction. Always film the police.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:11AM (2 children)
If someone else made the video, that person would own the copyright on the video. When an officer makes a video, any copyright belongs to the officer or to the law enforcement agency. One right that copyright confers is the right to not publish.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:20AM (1 child)
The bodycam videos mades by police officers are typically considered to be public records and subject to state FOIA laws [rcfp.org] (alt [google.com]). And someone paid taxes for that employee to make that video in the course of their duties.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:51PM
> The bodycam videos mades by police officers are typically considered to be public records
Public records are not necessarily in the public domain.
> and subject to state FOIA laws [rcfp.org] (alt [google.com]).
"Because only a few states have passed state-wide rules regarding public access to BWC footage, most police departments are left to determine their own rules," says that page.
The policy [rcfp.org] adopted by the Salt Lake City police says:
> And someone paid taxes for that employee to make that video in the course of their duties.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's in the public domain. You can see on the utah.gov website that the state asserts copyright: "Copyright © 2017 State of Utah - All rights reserved."