Police and Social Media

WYFF reported that a South Carolina police sergeant uploaded an arrest video of onto social media. Why would he do that? What about the person’s privacy?

The matter has been referred to the 12th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. The police sergeant in Florence lost his job after a video of him making an arrest was posted on YouTube.  The Sheriff’s office received a complaint from the person who was arrested. An internal investigation showed numerous policy violations.

“By way of further transparency, we have met with the individual involved and his attorney and all existing video has been made available in its entirety,” Florence County Sheriff TJ Joye said in the post. “Our agency has conducted training on the handling of First Amendment rights and that training is ongoing. We will continue to respect the First Amendment rights of the citizens of Florence County and those who travel here.”

“We promptly opened an Internal Affairs Investigation which included a review of all known video, including body worn camera video and interviews of the deputies on scene,” Joye said in a Facebook post.