A police body camera video shows two laughing Georgia cops apparently using a cellphone coin-toss app to decide whether to arrest a woman they had stopped for speeding.
After a joking discussion between the Roswell officers about the app, and whether “tails” meant arrest or release, distraught driver Sarah Webb was charged with going too fast for conditions and reckless driving. The cops then handcuffed her and placed her, sobbing, in the back of the squad car.
The incident occurred in early April, but the video was recently obtained by WXIA-TV Channel 11 in Atlanta. The station first reported on the video Thursday.
The officers, identified as Courtney Brown and Kristee Wilson, were placed on administrative leave and an investigation was launched after the station’s report.
“I have much higher expectations of our police officers, and I am appalled that any law enforcement officer would trivialize the decision-making process of something as important as the arrest of a person,” Roswell police Chief Rusty Grant said in a statement Friday.
Mayor Lori Henry on Sunday called the officers’ behavior “inexcusable and unprofessional.”
Charges have been dropped against Webb. She told “Inside Edition” that she was unaware at the time that the officers had used a coin-toss app to decide her fate. But she said the officers were“very degrading and rude and mean.”
When she learned of the virtual coin toss, “I was very angry and upset,” said Webb. “It hurt to know that these people are supposed to be looking out for you, and ... it was a game to them.”
Here’s the complete bodycam footage: