Real Life Police Activity Oxford Police Chief Bill Partridge has a message for people who talk smack about his cops: Put up or shut up.
Or he'll put it up for you.
Partridge said there has been a barrage of videos and comments on social media seeking to disparage good cops. He decided to fight back.
"Effective this date it will be my policy that if you disrespect one of our officers and then file a false complaint or make false claims on social media, I will post the video footage of the contact on social media for the public to see. I am tired of false complaints being brought to the department in an attempt to get out of a traffic charge or criminal charge."
And Partridge already has kept his word, with a 34-minute video that has been viewed more than 600,000 times since he posted it on Thursday. "These men and women do a dangerous job and they shouldn't have to put up with beratement,'' Partridge told AL.com on Monday.
It all began, Partridge said, when the police department's animal control officer, who is a sworn police officer, responded to a call of a dog running at large. The officer located the dog, and wanted to speak with the owner since it was at least the third time the officer had been called to the man's home on similar complaints.
Not long after the visit, the man posted this status on Facebook: "Almost just got shot in my own yard by Officer J. Caldwell of Oxford PD. HE BEAT MY DOOR DOWN OVER A DOG. He's the animal control officer and he's a lying individual. Yes, I have video but if I post it, it won't do anything but raise racial tensions."
Partridge said it didn't take long for his cell phone to start blowing up with screen shots of the man's post. He asked the police captain over the animal control officer to look at the video, which he did, and then got back to Partridge: "Chief,'' he told him, "It's not even close to what he said. You just need to watch it."
Partridge went back to his office and watched the video. And what he saw infuriated him. The officer's body cam video showed the officer calmly talking to the dog owner, who grabbed his cell phone to record the interaction and was clearly the agitated one in the situation. The officer never raised his voice or made threats of any kind.
That's when the chief decided to release the body cam video in its entirety. "Those types of inflammatory statements cause problems in the community,'' Partridge said of the man's Facebook post. "If you have an opportunity to put those fires out before they become forest fires, you need to do it."
"These men and women do a dangerous job every day and people are allowed to say whatever they want to about them without any consequences and we don't respond,'' he said. "We need to change that paradigm when they bold-face lie. We need to let people know officers are being treated this way and the public needs to know the truth."
Partridge said he's tired of the anti- police videos and rhetoric he's seen on social media.
"They'll throw a phone in your face hoping to antagonize you and then they'll edit it or put a snippet on YouTube that makes these officers look bad, and that's got to change,'' he said. "These people need to realize they're not going to get away with it. All they're trying to do is deflect what they're doing wrong. It's always law enforcement's fault. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions."
He said he's been asked what will happen if one of his officers does wrong, and that's captured on the video. That won't be hidden, he said. "If one of my officers does wrong, they'll pay the consequences. It's a two-way street."
Asked if he'd like to see other police departments follow suit, Partridge said that's up to them but he stands by the practice he has now put in place. "It's not going to be an everyday thing,'' Partridge said, "but if someone posts something inflammatory, we're going to respond to it."
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