Two Georgia officers seen on video using a coin-toss app to decide on an arrest during a traffic stop have been fired, the city’s police department said.
Rusty Grant, police chief of the Roswell Police Department, fired officers Kristee Wilson and Courtney Brown on 26, July for violating the department’s policies, the department’s community relations manager Julie Brechbill confirmed to The Independent.
Body camera footage obtained by local NBC-affiliate WXIA-TV, showed Ms Wilson and Ms Brown using a coin-toss app to decide whether they should arrest driver Sarah Webb during an April traffic stop – the officers had pulled Ms Webb over for allegedly speeding.
Mr Grant had previously noted he launched an internal investigation into the matter and placed the officers on an administrative leave pending review. In a video published to Facebook last week, he shared that he planned to conduct a “top-down assessment” of the department, and to bring in an outside public safety consultant to perform an assessment.
Ms Brechbill explained that the investigation, while still ongoing, had led the chief to terminate the officers’ employment within the department. Mr Grant concluded that the officers violated the department’s on-and-off duty conduct policies, according to copies of the termination memos provided to The Independent.
Ms Wilson and Ms Brown received public backlash after news spread they used a coin-toss app as a means to decide on an arrest. The officers did indeed arrest Ms Webb, after assigning “head” to arrest and “tail” to release. The coin-toss app appeared to signal “tail” but the officers decided to arrest the driver nonetheless. Charges against Ms Webb were later dropped.
Roswell Mayor Lori Henry had called the officers’ behaviour “inexcusable and unprofessional,” days after the body camera footage was released.
