Suffolk County PD Will Not Pursue Charges Against News Videographer

August 1, 2011 @ 4:29PM

Suffolk County PD Will Not Pursue Charges Against News Videographer

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Suffolk County police said they will not only clear videographer Phil Datz of obstruction charges, they will require all their officers to go through "refresher training on the interaction with the news media."

Hopefully, that training will also inform officers that they have to allow non-media citizens from recording them in public as well.

After all, if that is how a sergeant treats a news videographer with press credentials, you can imagine how he would treat someone without credentials.

The incident took place on Saturday and the video quickly became viral. Once again, Mickey Osterreicher, the attorney for the National Press Photographers Association, fired off a letter to the police department.

The Associated Press reported Monday that Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said he was working to "have the arrest nullified."

As usual, police did not release the name of the sergeant nor did they say they will discipline him for his obvious unlawful arrest.

But maybe he finally learned something in his 30-year career.

Comments

Duane Kerzic

9 months ago

About time he learned something.

Adam

9 months ago

That's not good enough. If the sergeant is not disciplined in some way, there is no reason to think he will not act that way in the future.

discarted

9 months ago

Adam's right, the officer must be disciplined for his unlawful actions.

More important, a lawsuit is necessary to show that this kind of behavior from law enforcement will not be tolerated.

Frank

9 months ago

Lawsuit? How about criminal charges?

NY State Charges: Kidnapping, False Imprisonment, Assault, Abuse of Authority, Use of a Firearm in the commission of a felony

Federal Charge: 18 USC 242, Kidnapping Under Color Of Law

This cop should be doing time in Sing Sing. After which he should be doing time in Allenwood.

Happy Tinfoil Cat

9 months ago

"He also said all officers would receive refresher training on interaction with the news media."

Hmmm, what about us poor citizens? How about making him read the Constitution once or twice? Maybe even quiz him.

Q: Is photography a crime
-----
A: Yes, it's terrorism.
B: Yes, a form of pedophilia
C: Yes, a deviant form of espionage (wiretapping)
D: All of the above
E: No, none of the above.

*Pixie*

9 months ago

LOL @ Happy Tinfoil Cat,

I want to put your "quiz" on the reverse of my business card and hand it out to every cop I meet! I wonder how many will get it wrong... :)

Still shooting

9 months ago

I would also want the record of the arrest expunged. His mug shot/finger prints would still be in the system.

Kol. Klink

9 months ago

Learned something? "Zey learn notzeen, NOTZEEN!" as Sgt Schultz would say.

Remember, about one-third of the randomly chosen "authorities" in the Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrated sadistic tendencies.

Jerry K.

9 months ago

"As usual, police did not release the name of the sergeant nor did they say they will discipline him for his obvious unlawful arrest."

This proves how much these pigs care about law and justice.

the Bulldog

9 months ago

which is why when someone shoots a cop, they should think back to sgt dipshit and thank him...

Jerry K.

9 months ago

I was reading a few days ago that, on average, less than 100 police officers are killed in the line of duty each year in the US. Somehow 300 to 600 people in police custody die each year. I wonder why? One death is too many in each case.

Johnny Law

9 months ago

I think line of duty deaths are usually over 100 per year actually.

What's your point? You ask why? Maybe because police arrest a lot of people who are on drugs, drunk, have health problems, shoot at the police, crash cars, so on and so on.

Jerry K.

9 months ago

"I think line of duty deaths are usually over 100 per year actually."

Are you including those that die while in training, heart attacks and health problems, air, motorcycle and auto accidents (I've never seen an officer wear a seat belt). Others are caused by breaking doors down the wrong addresses.

"Maybe because police arrest a lot of people who are on drugs, drunk, have health problems, shoot at the police, crash cars, so on and so on."

Including those that are tortured and tasered too, yes, police do that.

hal

9 months ago

JL----THAT IS THE POINT, THAT YOU DONT SEE THE POINT BECAUSE OF THE BLINDERS THAT YOU WEAR ALL THE TIME! GET THE POINT NOW? DONUT LOVER?

RonPaul2012

9 months ago

True Johnny, the FBI statistics show it is around a hundred a year +/- 20. What isn't stated in your post was that it's half death by felonious assault and the other half due to accidental causes.

Let's remove the amount of LEO deaths due to accidental reasons and the LEO fatality rate per 100,000 doesn't crack the top 20 of most fatal jobs in America.

It saddens me when anyone dies and I don't wish it upon anyone. There are deaths in most all career fields, and LEO's have a less chance of death than many other industries.

FBI stats link: http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/killed/2007/

hal

9 months ago

some of the also very sad facts are, those like bart and JL only deal with the facts created by themselves and are called for that reason, "ego created facts". a barn door wouldnt have enough space for the ego's of bart and JL! and the facts change as your talking to them, so in doing so your completely wasting your time.

joe

9 months ago

As most of our officers in blue cannot accept the truth unless it comes from the their leadership or official union channels of propaganda.

hal

9 months ago

bulldog:
i agree with you 100%!!!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Suffolk-County-Police-Department-Discussio...

Rich

9 months ago

I think once again this site has played a role in getting the ball rolling on getting justice done. Thanks Carlos.

ScottBee

9 months ago

Amuzingly, the Suffolk County Police Dept have no made their entire Facebook pages read-only.

hal

9 months ago

scottbee: i think if they could, they would in a new york minute!

hal

9 months ago

http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/police/contact.htm this is a link that
anyone that cant post on the FB site they had, but seems they
shut it down now for any input from anyone. this link includes
alot of email address's some here may feel useful for
contacting them, maybe they dont know there is something wrong
with the FB they have? maybe if they got some emails, they would
fix it and stop deleting all of our posts/comments.
cant they take constructive criticism? I mean, and i think i am talking for all of us, we mean all we have said on your FB page, in a good way. http://www.co.suffolk.ny.us/police/contact.htm

hal

9 months ago

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Suffolk-County-Police-Department-Discussio... is this for real or what? LMFAO looks like the internet won out, like it will always do when GOV. tries to censor it! it cannot be censored ever. but will they ever learn that? http://www.facebook.com/pages/Suffolk-County-Police-Department-Discussio...