Baltimore police officer caught on his own body camera ‘planting drugs at the scene of a crime to incriminate a defendant’ – Public defender outraged
Baltimore police officer is caught on his own body camera manufacturing evidence at an ‘artificial crime scene’ to incriminate an innocent suspect
The incident took place during an unjustified search in Baltimore, Maryland in January, 2017
Video starts by showing a cop appear to place a bag of drugs inside a soup can in a litter strewn alley, while two other beat cops hang back
He then walks out of the alley, past the other two officers
30 seconds later, he turned his bodycam on and tells his colleagues he is going to make another ‘check’ down the same alley
He looks around for a few seconds before picking up the drugs and yelling out
The incident was caught on camera because body cameras save footage of the 30 seconds prior to the device being turned on in the field, but not the audio
The defendant related to the video has been held since January on drug charges
Charges against him were reportedly dropped after this new video emerged
Public Defender’s office is outraged that since the dept became aware of the shocking footage, Baltimore PD has continued to call on the rogue officer and the other two beat cops to testify in other cases
The shocking footage has sparked outrage from the Baltimore public defender’s office
A Baltimore police officer unraveled his own drug bust when an autosave feature on police cameras that saves 30 seconds of video prior to activation, but without audio, revealed his sleight of hand at the point of arrest.
The Baltimore public defender’s office says the police body camera footage from a January drug arrest shows an officer placing a bag of drugs in a trash strewn lot. The officer can then be seen walking to the street, where he flips on his body camera, returns to the lot and picks up a soup can containing a bag of drugs, before effecting the arrest.
The damning footage was taken from an officer’s body camera during a drug arrest in January this year.
After the shocking video showing the Baltimore police officer appearing to plant drugs at the scene of a crime to implicate a defendant has emerged, it sparked an investigation, which was published Wednesday.
The set up appears to begin when officer reaches down and plants a bag of drugs inside a discarded soup can
The 90-second clip starts by showing the unidentified cop appearing to place a bag of white pills inside what looks like a discarded soup can.
The cop then walks out to the street ahead of two officers who were watching him.
The three officers saunter around on the street for a few seconds, before audio from the body camera kicks in at the 30-second mark of the clip when he turned his camera on.
There was no sound during the first 30 seconds, as the cameras save video from that time prior to the device being activated but do not record the audio.
The cop is heard saying: ‘I’m going to go check down here, hold on.’
It sounds as though laughter can be heard in the background as he begins walking down the alley back to the scene.
He then searches around, turning over a few rocks and other items, before picking up the same can he appeared to put the bag of drugs in just a few seconds earlier.
‘Yo,’ he yells out to his fellow officers after pulling the bag out, seemingly to alert them to his ‘discovery’. 
The video shows the ‘rogue’ cop turn around and walk past two other officers who had been standing behind him the entire time
The camera pans the other two cops on the beat with the ‘drug planting’ officer
The cop then walks back out the alley to the street before the video cuts off.
The Baltimore Sun reports the defendant in the case related to the video has been held since January on a $50,000 bond he could not pay as a result of ‘drug charges’ stemming from the video.The case was scheduled to go to trial last week.
After viewing the video, the prosecutor told the media: ‘I’ve passed it up and we are all appalled … something is going to happen because of this revelation.’
Charges against the man were dropped one day after the video emerged.
The drug planter then turns on his bodycam, walks back down the alley and conveniently ‘finds’ the drugs
He pulls the bag of pills out of the can before calling out to his fellow officers.
Baltimore Police said: ‘We take allegations like this very seriously and that’s why we launched an internal investigation into the accusations’
The defendant related to the case in question has been held since January on ‘drug charges’.
However, Public Defender Debbie Katz Levi was outraged by the clip and the fact that the rogue officer has been called to testify in other cases since the department became aware of the shocking footage.
‘They had knowledge. They watched it and were appalled by what was on the video, and then for whatever reason made the choice to continue to call him as a witness,’ Levi said.
‘You can’t try a case with that guy and not tell anyone about it.’
The Sun cited a note sent from the public defender to Baltimore defense lawyers, reading: ‘If you have a case dependent on any of these 3 officers, dig your feet in and demand disclosure of their IAD records.’
In response, Baltimore Police Department in a release said: ‘We take allegations like this very seriously and that’s why we launched an internal investigation into the accusations.
‘We are fortunate to have Body Worn Cameras which provide a perspective of the events as reported.’
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