The police officers who used a coin flip to decide they were going to detain a woman who allegedly drove over the speed limit have been suspended.
Courtney Brown and Kristee Wilson of the Roswell, Georgia Police Department have been placed on leave, it was announced on Friday.
Brown and Wilson were filmed giggling as they were filmed arresting Sarah Webb in April.
Webb was caught allegedly speeding past a police cruiser in Georgia and was pulled over.
According to the police report filed by Brown, Webb was driving around 85 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone.
As she sat in her car, damning bodycam footage obtained by 11Alive shows officer Brown return to the patrol vehicle to consult fellow officer Wilson on what she should do.
Courtney Brown and Kristee Wilson of the Roswell, Georgia Police Department have been placed on leave, it was announced on Friday
Brown and Wilson, two officers from Roswell Police in Georgia, decided whether or not to arrest a woman based off the flip of a coin in April, and the whole thing was caught on their body cameras
Sarah Webb was pulled over after allegedly speeding past a police cruiser on her way to work
Sarah told the officer she was late for work, and received a passionate lecture on road safety from officer Courtney Brown
Noting the pavement was wet, Brown decided to add a charge of reckless driving, but both noted Wilson did not have speed detection in her car or tickets.
With their options only to arrest Sarah and take her to jail or to release her, Brown turned to a coin for help.
Opening an app on her phone, the officers agreed if it landed on heads, she would be arrested, and if it landed on tails, she would be released.
The coin landed on tails.
But perhaps forgetting, or not caring, Wilson called for Sarah’s arrest, using the code ’23’.
Laughing, Brown gets out of the car to take Sarah into custody.
As she is led towards the car, Webb begins to cry, and body cam shows the hair stylist sobbing in the back seat of the patrol car.
Because Brown did not have any tickets on her, the only options were to release Sarah or arrest her
Officer Brown opened a coin flip app on her phone to help make the important decision
When the arrest was made, Sarah was seen crying, before breaking down in the back of the police car
Brown and her fellow officer, Wilson, were placed on leave for their actions, but not until the department was contacted by media about Sarah’s arrest
The chief of police announced on Friday that the two officers would be placed on leave
Though the event happened in April, it was not until recently, when Roswell Police Department were contacted about Brown and Wilson’s conduct, that they were placed on leave and an investigation was launched.
When Sarah faced court this week, the prosecutor revealed she had seen the video and told her she would not prosecute the case.
‘These are people who are supposed to protect us, and instead are treating our freedom and our lives like games,’ Webb, 24, told NBC News on Friday.
‘It’s disgusting. It’s scary to think police officers do stuff like this.’
Sarah’s mother Teresa shared a clip of the footage on Facebook, sharing her anger at the actions of her local law enforcement officers.
‘It makes me so upset seeing [Sarah] crying. It makes me so upset to know what they have done to her,’ she wrote.
‘Sarah could have lost her job and she could have lost her license. This caused a big financial hardship to our family.’
Rusty Grant, the chief of police in Roswell, told NBC News that the officers have been placed on leave.
‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, to be honest,’ Grant said.
‘It was appalling.
‘This isn’t a police procedure, to bring a coin flip – whether it’s an app or an actual coin toss – that’s not part of that decision making to decide to take someone’s freedom,’ Grant said.
Her mother, Teresa, told Facebook friends the arrest could have cost Sarah her job and her license, on top of the financial burden it had already caused
Webb, however, says placing the officers on leave is not punishment enough.
She said the officers received ‘a paid vacation.’
‘I would like to see them fired, because they shouldn’t have been playing with my freedom on a flip of a coin,’ she said.