Evansville, Ind., police are reviewing their ride-along policies after an officer’s son, who was with his father for the evening as part of the program, allegedly assaulted a man who was filming his dad making an arrest, the Evansville Courier & Press reports.
One of the questions being asked in the process, according to the news site, is whether family members should be allowed to ride along with officers.
“I don’t want to be knee-jerk,” Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin said. “Many family members decide to become police officers after a ride-along.”
The video that put the policy under scrutiny was shot during a June 28 arrest. Officer Bryan Underwood was assisting with an arrest at a gas station when he got into a confrontation with a man who was filming the incident.
The man being arrested, who was lying on his back while handcuffed in the police car, was complaining about having been shot. Underwood turned and saw the individual, who was apparently smoking a cigarette, filming. Underwood asked the unidentified man recording to back up before chastising him for smoking so close to gas pumps. The man responded by tossing his cigarette to the ground, which irritated Underwood even more. The officer then demanded the man’s ID to write him up for littering.
At that point the man and a woman began arguing with Underwood.
“You just shot him, you just shot him twice, he’s in handcuffs,” the man said, explaining that he tossed the cigarette because of Underwood’s earlier criticism.
“I didn’t do anything. Don’t worry about me,” Underwood said. The couple demanded Underwood’s badge number, with Underwood eventually giving them his business card before turning away.
At that point a man, identified as Underwood’s 21-year-old son, Brock, engaged the couple about whether or not a shooting happened. The young man then snatched the phone away from the man and said that he was going to break it.
Underwood was reportedly the only officer who saw the attack.
The police chief immediately banned Brock Underwood from participating in another ride-along. His father, Officer Underwood, will have to undergo training in order to handle similar situations better in the future.
Watch the NSFW video (contains offensive language) below:
Read more at the Evansville Courier & Press.