Caledonia, Wisconsin – A Facebook user named “La Savoo” posted a video of his experience during a traffic stop with Caledonia police and the footage went viral over the weekend.
In the cell phone video taken by the passenger, a police officer is seen tossing a baggie into the backseat of the car.
It appeared as if the officer was planting drugs in the vehicle. Watch below.
No one was arrested during the incident but the driver was cited for speeding.
On Saturday, Caledonia Police Chief Christopher Botsch released a summary of events and provided the body-worn camera by the officers:
On 07-21-21 at about 3:22pm, officers conducted a traffic stop for a vehicle traveling 63 mph in a 45 mph zone. The vehicle was occupied by a driver along with front and rear passengers. The driver was identified by her driver’s license. The front passenger lawfully declined to identify himself. The rear passengers were not wearing their seat-belts and were asked to identify themselves.
The driver and rear passengers were later removed from the vehicle. A subsequent search of one of the rear passengers produced an empty corner tear (corner of a plastic baggie) from a passenger’s pocket. The empty corner tear did NOT contain any illegal substance; however, this type of packaging is a common method for holding illegal drugs.
The empty corner tear was turned over by the searching officer to another officer who was on scene. That officer turned it over to the officer who is seen on video. Since there were NO DRUGS in the corner tear, the officers discarded the empty packaging material in the vehicle. This is what was observed in the video.
The front seat passenger tells the officer that his actions are on video, and the officer replies that he is also recording the incident. The officer acknowledges to the front seat passenger that he (officer) put the item there and explains that it was taken from one of the passengers and the officer did not want to “hold on to it.” Essentially, he appears to be discarding the empty baggie. While we would discourage officers from discarding items into a citizen’s vehicle, the video is clear that the officer is NOT planting evidence or doing anything illegal. Additionally, the empty corner tear is not itself illegal.
No arrests were made as a result of this incident. The only arrest/citation arising from this incident was a speeding citation issued to the driver.
While this is only a summary of the events, the origin of the empty corner tear and the circumstances under which it was placed in the vehicle are supported by body worn camera video.
There are two separate clips because they are from different officer’s body worn cameras.
Since four officers were present on scene, the body worn camera footage and squad camera footage totals in excess of 6 hours of video. We are still in the process of reviewing the videos. All videos, in their entirety, will be released in the very near future.
What do you think OF THE VIDEO? Leave a comment below!
