A group photo of about two dozen officers in tactical gear posing with fugitive killer Danelo Cavalcante minutes after his capture Wednesday in southeastern Pennsylvania drew criticism from police reform advocates and some members of the public The photo moment was captured by a KYW-TV television news helicopter. It showed officers and federal agents gathered in a semi-circle around the handcuffed fugitive for a photo before being loaded into an armored vehicle. Police experts said the moment of celebration after the grueling 14-day manhunt for the armed suspect was inappropriate and dehumanizing, according to the AP. But at least one operation leader said he wasn’t bothered.
Asked about the criticism at a news conference Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens focused on the officers’ work. “Those men and women work incredibly hard under very difficult circumstances,” he said News from New York. They take pride in their work. It doesn’t bother me at all that they took a picture of him in custody.” Police experts said the practice of taking pictures, especially after a successful arrest, is not uncommon, but it has become more frequent with the arrival While many police agencies have tried to create guidelines for social media use, including banning posts on personal pages while in uniform or on-duty, experts say these rules do not exist everywhere and are inconsistent.
“From a police ethics standpoint, a police officer taking a photo on the street and putting it on social media or doing it in celebration or retaliation is not OK,” said Adam Scott Wandt, policy instructor public to the John. Jay College of Criminal Justice. “As a lawyer, it also creates an evidentiary issue here. It’s a dangerous practice for a police officer to create evidence at a scene and not properly turn it over to the prosecutor.” The Pennsylvania State Police has a conduct policy covering the use of social media that prohibits posting or forwarding images of state police investigations or operations, or content that shows uniform, insignia or other official equipment of the agency department, without authorization. But it’s unclear whether Wednesday’s photo would be covered by that policy; A message left for a PSP representative was not immediately returned.
Photos of Cavalcante after his arrest, with a police dog holding him, circulated widely on social media Wednesday. The photos did not include information about who took them, but they were taken inside the secured perimeter where only law enforcement officers were allowed. For Niles R. Wilson of the Center for Policing Equity and a retired police captain in Newark, New Jersey, these celebratory photos bring to mind photos taken during the civil rights era depicting police brutalizing people to suppress them . “It’s not appropriate. It’s not ethical. It’s really inhumane,” Wilson said. “If I had been on the scene as a public affairs officer representing a law enforcement agency, I would have discouraged it,” said public affairs expert and former officer Leonard Sipes, though he said that he understood the inclination to celebrate after recapturing someone who was armed. and dangerous (Read more escaped criminal stories.)
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