Experts say cops defied basic policy

Failure to review bodycam footage may have let aggressive cops slide

Fort Lauderdale police may have let aggressive cops slide by unchecked by failing to review their body camera footage in violent arrests, a basic safeguard that most other departments follow, according to law enforcement experts.

The gap in the agency’s review of videos came to light this week when the agency acknowledged it hadn’t inspected monthsold bodycam videos that showed an officer using his knee to restrain two men on or near their necks — footage that the police chief now has forwarded to investigators and prosecutors for review.

Until this week, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s policies did not call for the videos to be reviewed unless there was a complaint about excessive force. Officers who filed reports justifying their use of force were trusted to provide accurate written accounts, and no one reviewed the bodycam footage to see if it lined up.

“Mandatory, supervisory review is pretty basic,” said Seth Stoughton, a professor of law at the University of South Carolina and a former Tallahassee Police Department officer. “Why would you have the body camera footage if you aren’t going to look at it?”

Fort Lauderdale police now will be review bodycam footage every time an officer uses force from now on, the same as other departments.

The Miramar Police Department, which began its bodycam program in October, says its process

requires a sergeant to review the officers’ bodycam videos whenever a use-offorce case has happened. Captains also review and attach the video to a system that is used to track and review use of force and other incidents.

“The video can then be reviewed by the majors, assistant chief and chief of police, as it goes up the chain of the command,” a Miramar police spokeswoman said.

Boca Raton also reviews the footage. Whenever a use-of-force case occurs within the department, all information is reviewed including witness statements, incident reports and all bodycam video available, said spokesman Mark Economou.

Philip Sweeting, retired deputy chief of police of the Boca Raton Police Department, said police need to look at bodycam video footage regularly if they want a clear understanding of the conduct of their officers. “They should want to make sure their officers are conforming to their policies,” he said. “You have a video. What’s the purpose of a video if no one is going to look at it unless the public complains about it. That’s silly.”

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione announced the new review policy this week after a public records request led to a troubling discovery of two incidents in which Officer Steven Pohorence, already under investigation for pushing a kneeling protester during a demonstration on May 31, appeared to place his knee on or near the necks of two resisting suspects.

Police had already reviewed those incidents but did not check the accompanying body camera footage because no one complained to Internal Affairs. Now police will compare future reports with the bodycams to make sure they line up.

Maglione called the failure to use the footage thus far a mistake.

“I regret to say we probably missed an opportunity there to incorporate that every review of every use of force would include a review of any associated body-worn camera footage,” Maglione said Tuesday. “But I look at these occurrences as opportunities as well. We’ve only had them a short period of time, and the policy that internal affairs reviews every use of force has been in existence for as long as I can remember. Every use of force is reviewed regardless if a complaint is received or not.”

The agency does not plan to dig into past incidents to see whether cops accurately described their encounters with the public.

“At this time, FLPD will not be retroactively reviewing body camera footage for previously reviewed self-reported response to resistance incidents,” said police spokeswoman Detective Ali Adamson.

Stoughton said he was surprised the department was not already reviewing that footage. Stoughton has led training related to body cameras and delivered lectures at numerous law enforcement conferences. He said it is common for police departments that widely use body-worn cameras to review the footage after use-of-force incidents.

Some law enforcement experts said reviewing every incident might encumber a supervisor’s workload, and others said they believed it might negatively affect officers’ morale if they feel that their every move is going to be watched and scrutinized.

But all agreed that using available video to evaluate all use-of-force incidents is something that would only help a police department.

Fort Lauderdale police didn’t review the footage until attorney Christina Currie, of Lauer and Currie P.A., chair of the Citizens Police Review board for the city, filed a public records request for Pohorence’s use-of-force cases. The department routinely reviews video before it is released and came across Pohorence’s questionable behavior in the process.

Fort Lauderdale police began extensive use of body cameras in 2018 after opposing them because of privacy concerns. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have applauded use of the footage. Even when police department brass does not review the footage, it is routinely included in materials provided to lawyers, along with police reports and crime scene photos.

Experts consulted by the South Florida Sun Sentinel said they did not see clear examples of excessive force in the two incidents involving Pohorence that were referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Pohorence wasn’t necessarily violating policy when he used his knee to restrain the two men who were accused of trespassing and were resisting arrest in 2019 and in April, they said.

“A knee on a subject’s neck has never been a trained technique,” Adamson said. “However, utilizing a knee on a subject’s back is. This technique is taught to be applied across the shoulder blades and mid-back and is used to control a combative or noncomplaint subject.

“The possibility of a resisting subject’s movements to cause an officer’s knee to slip from the intended location does exist.”

Determining whether Pohorence went too far in the two encounters will be to prosecutors and FDLE investigators to determine.

“The chief determined that the videos were best reviewed by FDLE, which operates independent of the city of Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Any further speculation on his decision would be unfair,” Adamson said.

Fort Lauderdale didn’t bar the use of a knee to restrain a suspect until after the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died after an officer was seen kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes in May.

Floyd’s death sparked an international wave of antipolice brutality demonstrations. During one in Fort Lauderdale on May 31, Pohorence was seen on video shoving a kneeling protester, an act that is also being reviewed by the FDLE.