A New York sheriff’s office this week defended two officers who arrested and handcuffed an 11-year-old girl, saying she matched the description of a suspect. The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, responding to criticism after video of the encounter was posted online, called the deputies’ actions “reasonable” but said the office would change its policy for notifying a parent or a guardian of any child detained in connection with a criminal investigation. purposes, which he did not do in this case.
The 11-year-old girl, who has not been publicly identified, was handcuffed for seven minutes by deputies Monday afternoon in Syracuse, according to a timeline of her detention released by the sheriff’s office, which said she was dressed in the same way as a person who was wanted in connection with the theft of a car. The girl was arrested a few blocks from where the stolen car was initially observed, the sheriff’s office said.
The suspect, who, like the girl, is black, has not been identified or captured. She was recorded by the dashcam of a deputy’s patrol vehicle as she fled the stolen vehicle, the sheriff’s office said.
A woman who identified herself on Facebook as the 11-year-old girl’s mother and shared videos on her page of the girl’s interaction with deputies could not immediately be reached. Her Facebook post had been shared nearly 6,000 times as of Thursday afternoon and garnered more than 130 comments, the vast majority of them criticizing the sheriff’s office for handcuffing the girl and not informing her parents of his arrest.
In the video, the girl stands with two police officers on a snowy sidewalk, her hands handcuffed behind her back. One of the deputies tells the children who were with the girl that they can continue, but one of the children responds that she has to stay with the girl because they are related.
“We can’t just leave her,” one of the children can be heard saying.
One of the children told deputies they were on their way home from school. The deputy told the handcuffed girl that someone wearing “the exact same thing as you just stole a car,” prompting one of the children to respond, “We can’t drive.” »
The deputy said to him: “What do you mean? Most kids don’t know how to drive and they always steal cars.
The children told deputies they were playing in the snow on the way home from school.
The police tell the children that the suspect was wearing an outfit similar to that of the 11-year-old girl: a pink jacket and camouflage pants.
“Exactly the same description,” the deputy said.
The deputy tells the children that she is waiting to be sent a photo of the suspect and that if it is not the girl they arrested, they will let her go.
Once the deputy receives the photo, she holds up her cell phone and asks the child she detained, “Girl, are you going to tell me that’s not you?”
The children gather around the deputy to look at the photo and point out the disparities between the girl and the suspect, including the differences in skin tone and the shoes they were wearing. At one point in the video, the girl can be heard crying.
The sheriff’s office said a deputy with a direct view of the dashcam footage used FaceTime to see the child in handcuffs and determined she was not a suspect. The sheriff’s office said it documented differences between the girl and the suspect, including in the camouflage pattern of their pants, the grain of their pink jacket, the length of their hair and their skin tone, the agency said in a press release.
“This situation was quickly resolved, in large part due to the juvenile’s willingness, patience and cooperation,” the sheriff’s office said.
Sheriff Tobias Shelley said he met with the girl’s mother to discuss her concerns and understood why she was upset about not being informed her daughter was handcuffed. The sheriff’s office said it would change its policy “to notify a parent or guardian of any minor detained for criminal investigation purposes, regardless of the brevity of the encounter.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union condemned the deputies’ actions, saying it was “extremely troubled by the aggressive treatment of an 11-year-old black child by Syracuse sheriff’s deputies, and by their failure to inform the court of the child.” parents.”
“This mistreatment raises serious concerns about implicit racial bias, which too often leads law enforcement to perceive children of color as a threat. It also raises questions about proper training and protocols within the Sheriff’s Office,” the civil rights organization said. “The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office must engage with the community and make further changes with community input.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement, “Inmates are usually handcuffed at first” because they might become uncooperative, run away or fight.
“Handcuffing juveniles in these circumstances is legal, as part of standard law enforcement policy and practice,” the statement said.
The girl’s mother told NBC affiliate WSTM-TV in Syracuse that she couldn’t understand what she saw when she watched the video.
“Even if it wasn’t my child, I couldn’t finish watching the video because that’s not how you treat children,” she told the station.
