Officers Detain Army Staff Sergeant

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers matching the description of a suspect officer chain of communication and eyewitness testimony and is brought to us by sheriff mike chitwood's facebook page be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve before we dive into the interaction i want to give a big thanks to the sponsor of this episode surf shark with the surf shark subscription you'll gain access to an array of additional features along with your vpn service one of the best surfshark features is whitelister which gives you the ability to make only some of your traffic travel through the vpn tunnel while allowing specific websites and services to reach the internet directly the big upside of whitelister is that you don't need to constantly connect and disconnect from the vpn when you're using different services if you're having trouble accessing certain apps and websites because of your vpn such as banking websites or cloud storage simply add them to the split tunneling list and they'll use the internet as if you didn't have a vpn at all and the apps and websites not on whitelister will still benefit from the usual levels of vpn protection right now surfshark is offering the ata community an 83 discount with additional three months completely free with 24-hour customer service and a 30-day money-back guarantee you have absolutely nothing to lose so click the link in the description to claim your exclusive offer now thanks again to surf shark for sponsoring this episode on august 27 2020 former army staff sergeant and hospital icu manager joseph griffin was jogging along a large thoroughfare a few blocks from his home in deltona florida approximately five minutes into the jog a deputy of the volusia county sheriff's office whose name has not been released made contact with mr griffin hey buddy if you're not in any trouble or anything there is a burglary that happened you kind of fit the description let me just make let me just make sure that you're not him okay all right um i'm a vet i have my id okay can i see your id yeah you literally they said white tank top black shorts and they they said that you had a beard all right so i'm not saying it's you but it was a white male again not saying it to you buddy the case law regarding whether matching the description of a suspect constitutes reasonable suspicion is scarce but the 11th circuit court of appeals which presides over florida has explored this topic in the past in the 2017 case of united states vs felix the appeals court agreed with the district court's interpretation and affirmed that quote stopping an individual who matches the description of an armed robber in relative close proximity to the crime scene within 10 minutes of the crime occurring and patting them down for weapons is well within the bounds of the fourth amendment and terry there are strong parallels between the felix case and mr griffin's detainment but one element of this stop that the court would likely have to consider is the seriousness of the crime mr griffin is suspected of mr griffin matches the description of a suspect who allegedly stole a leaf blower from a nearby house but in the felix case the court was dealing with a violent crime involving firearms all that said the terry doctrine is based on rational inferences drawn from both the observed facts of the officer and their experience and the court acknowledged that in the felix case by stating that an officer is permitted to seize a suspect for a brief investigatory stop if the stop was quote reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place detaining citizens because they match the description of a suspect is a routine practice and it is in line with the rational inference structure of the terry case when an individual matches the description of a suspect and is within a reasonable vicinity of the crime scene it is likely that a court would uphold a stop based on reasonable suspicion all right buddy listen just bear with me okay cause you fit the description i'm not saying you're guilty but my sergeant's telling me to detain you that's that's my sergeant um i got you i just had a daughter born two days ago so i just got this online it's live do you mind do you mind sending it down here yeah okay look i i'll collect it for you okay because for now i'm gonna detain you look you're not you're you're not under arrest i'm detaining you right now because you fit the description okay the same time for me okay buddy [Music] again buddy you're not under arrest it's just that you fit the description they're going to verify for me look look i'll even i even put you where look all right y'all better raise hell yep and by the way look i'm live too i even got recorded again like i told you you're not you're not we're not saying it's you but you fit the description that's why i'm detaining you if it's not you we're going to cut you loose and you're free to go okay but i just want you to see through us why you know literally you stole something right now and we just want to verify it's not you [Music] okay we're the same you know me i'm gonna take care of you relax i got you buddy did 40 say camel shorts because i told them theirs just have they're completely black i mean they have army on the side but it is extremely important to consider the practical implications associated with the chain of communication that members of law enforcement work with every day in order to fully grasp why this stop was initiated there are grand psychological and philosophical theories associated with the distortion of information as it is passed from one receiver to the next and as a message is passed through various points of communication the information within that message becomes progressively less reliable and exact each time a message is recorded whether it be input into a device or passed from human to human some measure of its original meaning is lost this idea epitomizes the theory of information distortion and is unavoidable to some degree a prime example of this theory is an exercise that is performed in many elementary schools known as the whisper game in the exercise the instructor whispers a message to one of the students who then whispers that message to the next student and this ritual continues until the message has been relayed through all of the students in the class as the message passes from student to student my new details become distorted and when the final student says the message out loud it is much different than what the instructor said to the first student the chain of police communication is not exempt from detriments of information distortion and even highly organized forms of communication often degrade the integrity of complex messages when a citizen dials 9-1-1 and speaks to a dispatcher that creates one link in the chain the dispatcher then types the pertinent details into a computer creating another link the officer then reads the message through his computer and another link is formed then the officers update one another as the incident is responded to adding to the distortion oftentimes there are multiple callers which create entirely new chains of communication that all add to the entropy of the messages mr griffin's stop thoroughly demonstrates the imperfections of police communication because as the west volusia beacon reported the original 911 caller described the suspect as a black male wearing a white tank top flip-flops and a black hat and as you can see by this footage of the officers apprehending the correct suspect even that description was somewhat inaccurate police officers are subject to the very same psychological tribulation that plague us all and although there are likely areas of police communication that could be improved mr griffin stop was a byproduct of an inherent disconnect between the senders and receivers of any message that's what i was telling him literally if if he's free to if he's not the one we'll cut him loose get somebody over here real quick just make sure but the good news is they come off as easy as they go on so that's it then i apologize for being convenient hey everything going on it's just a little bit scary yup this is a bird it was a burgundy it's a burglar it's serious it's not a joke yep we don't know that for sure though you know what i mean that's what i'm trying to say see it through us see it through our eyes so you got these guys that are getting ready to go home and we're coming in so that's why you have so many whoever whoever did it picked about the worst time they could possibly do it we had about 30 of us right here of valencia right now as the officers explain why they stopped mr griffin and assure him that he will be released as soon as they confirm that he was not involved this patrol vehicle slowly drives by mr griffin and the officers inside the vehicle was one of the witnesses to the crime this is a common tactic that police officers use to confirm whether they have apprehended the right suspect but the efficacy of this procedure is dubious research has found that the reliability of eyewitness testimony can be extremely questionable and although the witness may appear confident in their recollection the very nature of human memory and visual perception can be capricious since the 1960s social scientists have demonstrated that the accuracy of eyewitness testimony is sometimes fickle and it wasn't until the court began utilizing dna evidence in the early 90s that the problem became fully realized in 2014 the national academy of sciences released a comprehensive report that reviewed a litany of studies associated with eyewitness testimony the report acknowledged that it is a complex problem that is deeply rooted in human psychology and suggests solutions that could be employed to mitigate the impact of human error many studies have been conducted to examine the legitimacy of eyewitness reports and most of them have concluded that the testimony of eyewitnesses is highly circumstantial and easily manipulated nonetheless officers still rely on witnesses to ensure that they capture the correct suspect and luckily for mr griffin the witness in the back of the patrol car confirmed that he was not the suspect they were after so so good news for you the witness is saying that the clothes you're wearing and all that doesn't fit the description [Music] so we got a picture um again he's gonna run it through make sure it's not you and from what looks like buddy you'll be out of here okay what's your name joseph joseph hey listen jake just want to say thank you for keeping a cool good demeanor we just got a picture finally from the witness and i get why they they went out with you for sure clearly not you but the clothing description everything matched so obviously these guys didn't have that to go back they just had a description of the match it's pretty good but once we finally got the picture from the video surveillance and stuff it was like nah that's fine that's what i told them after confirming that mr griffin was not the suspect he was released and the deltona officers left the scene without further incident once sheriff chitwood released the body camera footage of the incident several news outlets picked up the story after circulating through the media sheriff chitwood offered mr griffin a job with the volusia county sheriff's office and invited him to speak at a series of upcoming implicit bias training workshops for the department staff mr griffin accepted the sheriff's offer and the training is set to begin on october 9th in his facebook post that accompanied the release of the footage sheriff chitwood stood by the actions of his officers and praised mr griffin's demeanor in cooperation by stating quote everyone involved in this deserves recognition for a job well done thank you again to every deputy and to joseph griffin and to all of you who can see that both perspectives deserve a look overall the volusia deputies get an a-plus for carrying out their duties efficiently and respectfully remaining within the bounds of their authority throughout the encounter and for taking all the necessary steps to conclude that mr griffin was innocent the adage of being in the wrong place at the wrong time bears significant merit within the context of this stop and although it is unfortunate that mr griffin was detained for a crime he did not commit that does not render the stop illegitimate the supreme court has routinely championed the notion that the fourth amendment accepts the fact that sometimes innocent individuals will be stopped under suspicion of committing a crime and the narrative of mr griffin's story would have been much different if he had been guilty of a crime but not stopped and questioned members of law enforcement operate under a high degree of scrutiny and are often placed in awkward situations that offer no favorability from the public regardless of how well they execute their duties i commend the volusia county deputies for their devotion to maintaining a positive relationship with their community and i commend sheriff chitwood for turning this interaction into a learning experience for all those involved and cultivating a progressive dialogue with mr griffin and the citizens of volusia county as a whole mr griffin also gets an a plus for remaining calm and cooperative throughout the encounter voicing his concerns about the stop in a respectful manner and accepting the sheriff's offer to participate in the implicit bias workshops effectively adding to the positive narratives surrounding the interaction mr griffin expertly handled himself both during and after this encounter and his ability to maintain his composure is exceptional it should also be noted that mr griffin refrained from speaking throughout the majority of the encounter but balanced his silence with a hospitable attitude mr griffin's willingness to work with the volusia county deputies is distinctly admirable and it demonstrates his commitment to his community i commend mr griffin for handling this interaction perfectly and acting as a quasi liaison for his community let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to like and subscribe for more police interaction [Music] content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 2,381,848

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: YqrSZbmKCM0

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020