Officers caught on video flipping coin to decide whether they'll arrest driver
Police officers in Georgia were caught on body-camera flipping a coin to decide whether they would arrest a driver who was pulled over for speeding.
The shocking heard-on-camera moment took place April 7 when 24-year-old Sarah Webb was pulled over by Roswell police.
"I approached the vehicle, announced myself as a city of Roswell police officer, and asked the driver is she knew how fast she was going," an officer said in the Roswell Police Department incident report.
Webb said she was running late to work, and following police instructions, she handed over her driver's license and turned off the car, the report said.
Minutes later, the officers are back in the patrol car and are heard on body-camera saying, "A head, R tail," likely standing for "arrest" and "release."
Sounds of a coin flip and laughter follow.
The officer used a coin toss app on a cell phone, according to Roswell Police Chief Rusty Grant.
"This is tail right?" an officer is heard saying.
"Yeah, so release?" the other officer said.
"23," responds the officer -- likely suggesting "Code 23," which is an arrest.
The officers then returned to Webb, still waiting at her car.
"I asked WEBB to step out of the vehicle and place her hands behind her back," the arresting officer wrote in a report. "WEBB was placed in custody in Smith & Wesson handcuffs which were double locked and seated in the rear of my patrol vehicle."
"I have a really big day at work," Webb said, crying, in the caught-on-camera moment.
Webb was arrested on charges of reckless driving, too fast for conditions and speeding -- all misdemeanors, according to the arrest report.
Prosecutors have dismissed the case against Webb, according to NBC affiliate WXIA-TV in Atlanta.
"They put me in a situation that was really wrong,” Webb told ABC News on Friday.
"I just want to see the two officers, I want to see justice," she said. "It's not fair. Other people's freedom, other people's lives, are not a game. And these are the people we're supposed to be trusting."
Chief Grant said "after I became aware that this incident occurred, I immediately initiated an internal investigation."
Both officers were placed on administrative leave, Grant said in the Friday statement.
"Since this is an open internal investigation, I cannot discuss the details of the incident until the conclusion of the investigation," Grant said. "This behavior is not indicative of the hard working officers of the Roswell Police Department, 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."
