How Far Is the N.Y.P.D. Willing to Go to Make a Pot Arrest? | NYT - Visual Investigations

“You jump. You jump, me, E, stay there, okay? A traffic stop in New York City leads to the

arrest

of a young black man for marijuana possession. Marijuana laws have been relaxed in much of the country. But in New York there were still 18,000

arrest

s made last year. Such arrests are rarely challenged. But videos provided to the Times by public defenders in this case raise troubling questions about how far officers are

willing

to go to

make

an arrest. The NYPD told Us that the officers in this case did not act improperly. This is what happened: "Give me your license." Officers Elmer Pastran and Kyle Erikson stopped a BMW on Staten Island in February 2018.

They say the car's windows were excessively tinted and the driver turned without signaling. Inside there are four young black men. When reinforcements arrive, they search the occupants. Officer Pastrán recognizes some of the passengers and tells his partner that they are members of a violent gang in the area. The driver, Lasou Kuyateh, pleaded guilty to assault in 2016. Erikson searches the passenger side and looks at the back of the car. He takes into account the rear floor area. This soon becomes important. Erikson sits in the driver's seat and says that he needs to find something incriminating. Just as Erickson says this, his body camera goes off.

He later said there was a technical problem. But Pastran's body camera keeps rolling. He is searching the rear. He looked at the floor area again. Erickson would later tell the court that he found a lit joint in plain sight, here. But Pastrán, who is leaning over the area, sees nothing. A minute later, Erickson enters the back of the car. He searches the back seat. He remembers, his camera is still off. But Pastrán's camera captures Erickson. He appears to be fiddling with something in the back seat, but at no point does he suggest that he has found anything.

The officers chat at the front. They've been looking for the car for three and a half minutes. The car's owner, who has a cell phone outside, films Erickson holding small plastic bags. We don't know where the bags come from or what Erickson is doing with them. The driver is handcuffed and his phone is taken away. Pastrán tells another officer that he found no contraband. At the same time, Erickson is inside the car. His body camera turns back on. He's been off for over four minutes. The first 30 seconds of the video have no sound. This is because police body cameras continue to record and save a video segment that is filmed just before they are turned back on.

The audio begins here, indicating the moment the camera was activated. Let's go back. It activates just as Erickson discovers evidence. He approaches the floor behind the driver's seat. He appears holding a joint and claims that it is lit. He believes this will allow him to arrest all of the car's occupants. Police officers are under pressure to

make

arrests and many would naturally think that four arrests are better than one. But Pastrán rejects the idea. While they take him to a police station, the driver, now handcuffed, talks to Pastrán. The driver was charged with possession of marijuana and spent two weeks in jail.

During the court hearing, Officer Erickson testified that the joint was lit and visible when he found it on the ground. But let's remember that Pastrán declared the area clean. Those images were incorporated into evidence and, during Erickson's testimony, the judge intervened. The police department was informed that Erickson should get an attorney. And in the end, the marijuana case was dismissed and sealed. The NYPD told us that internal investigators reviewed these videos and found no police misconduct. Officer Pastrán did not return our calls. And Officer Erickson declined to comment.