The Tampa Police Department has fired a police officer videotaped dragging a handcuffed detainee across the ground into jail.
The ex-cop was released because he violated a nearly decade-old law forbidding officers from dragging suspects, even uncooperative, on the ground during an arrest.
The TPD released former officer Gregory Damon from his duties with the force on Tuesday, Dec. 27, after an internal investigation determined he violated “multiple department policies while booking an inmate into the Orient Road Jail” on Nov. 17.
A statement from the department said Damon violated “departmental policies related to: Searching, Transporting, and Booking of Prisoners; Courtesy to the Public; Reporting Response to Resistance; Treatment of Persons in Custody; and Standard of Conduct” and “was found to have additionally violated policies related to Body Worn Camera, Response to Resistance, and Incompetence.”
Interim Police Chief Lee Bercaw said, “Professionalism is not only expected, it is demanded, in every encounter our officers have with the public, regardless of the arrestee being uncooperative or unpleasant in return. As law enforcement officers, we are held to a higher standard.”
On the day of the incident, Damon and other officers responded to a call to the Tampa Family Health Center because the facility reported that a person was sleeping outside the property and refused to leave. When they arrived, the officers encountered a woman on the premises, who just a month ago, on Oct. 19, had been warned about trespassing on the same property.
The individual was arrested for trespassing, placed in Damon’s vehicle, and transported to jail by Damon.
Body camera footage captured her yelling at the officer, “I want you to drag me!”
“Come on. Walk to my car,” the officer says. “Walk to my car.”
“Why you saying that but pulling me?” she asks. So, go on ahead and drag me because that’s what you’re doing anyway.”
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