Utica, NY Cops’ Dash Camera Caught Them Allegedly Planting Evidence in Driver’s Car

Video of a Utica police officer allegedly planting evidence in a black driver's car has sparked a number of similar reports from the city's black residents.

By Jorge Rivas Jan 03, 2012

The Utica Phoenix has obtained a video recorded by a police car’s dash cam that allegedly shows an officer taking a small plastic bag out of his pocket and then pretending like he found it the black driver’s SUV.

At the 1:02 time mark, one officer pulls a small baggie of something out of his pocket and 30 seconds later he emerges from the car as if he discovered the bag inside the car.

The video is said to have been widely distributed throughout Utica’s black community and it’s sparking a number of other black residents to come forward saying their victims of the police department planting evidence too.

The Utica Phoenix interviews a black woman with a similar story:

A recent Phoenix interview of a Black female resident of Utica charges that police kicked in the front door of her home without a warrant. Inside, the woman’s 83 year old handicapped mother was subject to police swarming through her house while they, ‘waited for a warrant.’

The interviewed subject went on to explain that though she was allowed to enter when she returned home, to care for her terrified mother, police entered with a drug sniffing dog, once they were issued the warrant.

The dog was taken throughout the house and found no drugs. The dog was verbally abused, cursed and yanked around, finally to be returned to the car. Police continued their search and somehow, achieved what the trained nose of the police dog could not do. The officers ‘found’ drugs.

The Utica Phoenix reports the chairman of the Legal Redress Committee of the NAACP, Venice Ervin, brought this video to the attention of Utica Police Chief Williams. The FBI is also currently reviewing the video.