Daily Mail Reporter
A video taken from a police vehicle's dashcam shows an officer allegedly placing a bag in the car of a man they had pulled over for running a stop sign.
The video, which was filmed on February 11, 2011, shows the officers searching the car as the man stands handcuffed.
The officers are from Utica, New York, and the video was released by the local paper, the Utica Phoenix.
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One of the officers is shown pulling a bag out of his pocket as he gets into the passenger side of the car.
He then emerges from the car with the same bag.
It is not clear what is inside the bag.
The video has gone viral since it was uploaded on YouTube on January 2.
When it was first put on the Phoenix's website it got so many hits - 64,000 in just under 24 hours - it crashed the site, wktv.com reports.
Utica police say they are still investigating the incident and that the video is also being reviewed by the FBI.
The video posted on the internet is one minute 40 seconds long, but the full video is 30 minutes.
Early in the full video, an officer's empty hand is shown going into the driver's jacket pocket and pulling out a bag.
Explaining that there were two suspects in the car, Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said: 'He's going into the car with it and that's what he's doing, it's cold out and he's basically separating the drugs from both defendants.'
The video, which was filmed on February 11, 2011, shows the officers searching the car as the man stands handcuffed.
The officers are from Utica, New York, and the video was released by the local paper, the Utica Phoenix.
Scroll down for video
Highly irregular: The police officer places the packet in the car
He then emerges from the car with the same bag.
It is not clear what is inside the bag.
The video has gone viral since it was uploaded on YouTube on January 2.
One officer moves the handcuffed driver while the other checks the vehicle
As the driver stands there handcuffed, the officer is in the passenger seat
Out he comes: The officer emerges from the passenger seat with the packet
Utica police say they are still investigating the incident and that the video is also being reviewed by the FBI.
The video posted on the internet is one minute 40 seconds long, but the full video is 30 minutes.
Early in the full video, an officer's empty hand is shown going into the driver's jacket pocket and pulling out a bag.
Explaining that there were two suspects in the car, Utica Police Chief Mark Williams said: 'He's going into the car with it and that's what he's doing, it's cold out and he's basically separating the drugs from both defendants.'
Cop caught planting drugs (VIDEO)
Ultica cops in hot water after video of a search went viral
Two cops in Upstate New York are under investigation for allegedly planting narcotics in the car of a couple pulled over in the city of Utica.
The incident, which occurred on February 11, 2011, is being reexamined nearly a year later after the cops involved in the caper have been caught on tape creating “evidence” and placing narcotics in the suspects’ automobile.
The recording of the incident, unbeknownst to the officers, was being made by the camera in their own squad car.
The Utica Phoenix newspaper has come in possession of the recording and has since uploaded an excerpt of the footage to the Web. In the clip, a Utica Police Department officer is seen ushering a suspect in handcuffs away from his vehicle, then approaching the driver-side door, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a small baggie. The officer then crawls into the car, appears to drop the item in question and shortly thereafter exits the vehicle with the drugs that were allegedly confiscated from the car.
According to the Venice Ervin of a local NAACP chapter, the clip clearly shows Officer Paul Paladino, a white officer, planting evidence in the car of two black suspects.
The video has gone viral since first posted this week, garnering enough hits to temporarily cause the Utica Phoenix’s website to go down. The local Police Department has fired back at the allegations, however, and insists that Officer Paladino came in contact with the evidence earlier in the search and had placed it in his pocket for safekeeping.
“You can put the evidence on your person to maintain custody of it until you have a chance to store it,” Williams and Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara explains. “Where else are you going to put it, on the ground? In the course of searching someone, sometimes the only thing you’ve got is your pockets until a short time later you can put it all together.”
To others, that seems too far-fetched to be the truth.
“We do feel there is concern that some wrongdoing has been done because police officers don’t place evidence in their back pocket and then take it out and climb into a suspect’s car, and then exit with the drugs unrolled,” adds the NAACP’s Ervin to Utica’s Observer-Dispatch.“I’m pretty sure it’s part of their training not to do the things they did in the video. That makes it very suspect when you see something like that.”
Others also remain skeptical. “If you take something from a suspect, do you put in back in your own pocket?” asks the Utica Phoenix’s Cassandra Harris-Lockwood. “You've got a crime scene, don't you protect your crime scene? What do you mean, you stick it in your pocket? That doesn't sound like proper police procedure to me. Stick it in your pocket? I don't think so."
The Utica Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards has begun their own investigation in the manner, which will be followed up by a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One of the suspects obtained the tape and forwarded it to the NAACP and FBI, prompting the recent reinvestigation nearly a year after the initial incident.
Pending the results of the investigation, Utica police Chief Mark Williams says he will handle it in a proper manner.
“I just hope people are open-minded and realize that it’s in my best interest, if I have a dirty road cop, to get rid of him, not defend him,” Williams says.
The incident, which occurred on February 11, 2011, is being reexamined nearly a year later after the cops involved in the caper have been caught on tape creating “evidence” and placing narcotics in the suspects’ automobile.
The recording of the incident, unbeknownst to the officers, was being made by the camera in their own squad car.
The Utica Phoenix newspaper has come in possession of the recording and has since uploaded an excerpt of the footage to the Web. In the clip, a Utica Police Department officer is seen ushering a suspect in handcuffs away from his vehicle, then approaching the driver-side door, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a small baggie. The officer then crawls into the car, appears to drop the item in question and shortly thereafter exits the vehicle with the drugs that were allegedly confiscated from the car.
According to the Venice Ervin of a local NAACP chapter, the clip clearly shows Officer Paul Paladino, a white officer, planting evidence in the car of two black suspects.
The video has gone viral since first posted this week, garnering enough hits to temporarily cause the Utica Phoenix’s website to go down. The local Police Department has fired back at the allegations, however, and insists that Officer Paladino came in contact with the evidence earlier in the search and had placed it in his pocket for safekeeping.
“You can put the evidence on your person to maintain custody of it until you have a chance to store it,” Williams and Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara explains. “Where else are you going to put it, on the ground? In the course of searching someone, sometimes the only thing you’ve got is your pockets until a short time later you can put it all together.”
To others, that seems too far-fetched to be the truth.
“We do feel there is concern that some wrongdoing has been done because police officers don’t place evidence in their back pocket and then take it out and climb into a suspect’s car, and then exit with the drugs unrolled,” adds the NAACP’s Ervin to Utica’s Observer-Dispatch.“I’m pretty sure it’s part of their training not to do the things they did in the video. That makes it very suspect when you see something like that.”
Others also remain skeptical. “If you take something from a suspect, do you put in back in your own pocket?” asks the Utica Phoenix’s Cassandra Harris-Lockwood. “You've got a crime scene, don't you protect your crime scene? What do you mean, you stick it in your pocket? That doesn't sound like proper police procedure to me. Stick it in your pocket? I don't think so."
The Utica Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards has begun their own investigation in the manner, which will be followed up by a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One of the suspects obtained the tape and forwarded it to the NAACP and FBI, prompting the recent reinvestigation nearly a year after the initial incident.
Pending the results of the investigation, Utica police Chief Mark Williams says he will handle it in a proper manner.
“I just hope people are open-minded and realize that it’s in my best interest, if I have a dirty road cop, to get rid of him, not defend him,” Williams says.
