WATCH: Police flip coin to decide whether to arrest woman
Two police officers have been placed on leave after flipping a coin to determine whether or not to arrest a speeding driver.
Newly obtained bodycam footage shows two Roswell police officers in Georgia, US, pull over female motorist Sarah Webb who was driving to work at 137km/h in a 72km/h zone in April, WXIA-TV reported.
“The ground’s wet, it’s been raining. On this type of a road … that’s reckless driving, ma’am,” Officer Courtney Brown tells Webb.
“Instead of calling and saying you’re running late for work, you’d rather risk people’s lives.”
“I’m sorry,” a tearful Webb responds.
The officer then returns to her car and seeks advice from fellow officer Kristee Wilson.
“What do you think?” says Wilson.
After admitting they didn’t have a speech detection device or tickets to issue, the officers opened a coin flip app on one of their phones and agreed that heads would result in an arrest and tails, a release.
“A [arrest] head, R [release] tail,” says Wilson.
After using the app, she adds: “This is tail right?”
Brown responds: “Yeah. So release?”
Officer Wilson interjects with, “23″ – a numerical code for arrest.
“Michael Jordan? Alright, so I’ve got too fast for conditions, reckless…” Brown answers.
Webb is handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.
“Are you f****** kidding me,” she says before asking if she can pay a ticket in lieu of arrest, explaining that she had an important day of work ahead.
Police Chief Rusty Grant said in an emailed statement on Friday that as soon as he found out about the incident he started an internal investigation and put the two officers on administrative leave.
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“I have much higher expectations of our police officers and I am appalled that any law enforcement officer would trivialise the decision-making process of something as important as the arrest of a person,” Grant said.
Webb says the charges against her have since been dropped and that she didn’t know about the coin flip until months after her arrest, WXIA-TV reported.
“They’re very degrading and rude and mean,” Webb told Inside Edition.
“Wow, these people put my freedom in the hands of a coin flip.”
