The Baltimore Police Department and city prosecutors are investigating body camera footage which allegedly shows an officer planting drugs at a crime scene back in January, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Police said they have not reached any conclusions about the conduct of officer Richard Pinheiro, who was identified by the public defender’s office. (The public defender’s office also identified Hovhannes Simonyan and Jamal Brunson as the other two officers in the video.)
Instead, as cases involving police go under review, one officer has been suspended while the other two have been placed on administrative duty—you know, just a lil’ time out.
Video footage (above) reportedly shows Pinheiro placing a soup can containing a plastic bag into a lot covered with trash. After his body camera automatically turned on and captured him allegedly planting the can, he announced he was going to search it. He then retrieved the can and removed the plastic bag filled with white capsules.
“This is a serious allegation of police misconduct,” said Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis. “There is nothing that deteriorates the trust of any community more than thinking for one second that police officers … would plant evidence of crimes on citizens.”
Last week, an alert from the public defender’s office to prosecutors regarding the footage led to a heroin possession charge being dropped against the man arrested for the drugs.
Baltimore police released three other videos of the incident in question to provide “other perspectives,” but the flagged footage has prompted an investigation into whether Pinheiro re-enacted the recovery of a bag of drugs once their body cameras were turned on.
A report completed by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services concluded that research regarding the impact of body cameras is lacking, but questions and concerns over proper use of the devices remain.
