Bodycam of Toledo officers releasing K9 on man during traffic stop from a license plate reader
By: New information and disturbing video of a K-9 released on a man during a traffic stop has come out Monday.
Last week, multiple officers with the Toledo Police Department were under investigation after releasing a K-9 on a man during a traffic stop. Now, body cam footage has been released.
According to a police report, TPD was alerted to a stolen license plate by a FLOCK camera. It turns out, that information was wrong. The FLOCK camera captured an image that came back to a Chevy Malibu but is pictured on the back of a late model red Dodge Ram Pickup truck.
The officer saw the truck leaving a carryout and stopped it. With guns drawn, officers tell the driver multiple times to get out of the truck. Then, the K-9 officer gets the police dog.
The driver of the vehicle, Brandon Upchurch is seen getting out of the vehicle with his hands up. While asking why he was pulled over, officers can be heard ordering him to face away and get on the ground.
Upchurch then starts to walk in the grass and the K-9 handler gets closer with the dog. Upchurch was then arrested and charged with resisting arrest and obstruction.
Officers then realize the information they were given is wrong and it is not the stolen plate.
“It’s what? It’s not the stolen plate. No. No what was the stolen plate? JLL7632. Did It just miss hit? I think it mishit. It ran 732 or 7632 from the way here, and it was good, then I saw this truck and saw it was on this truck. So that’s when I stopped it. So it was a misread. But I stopped it. I didn’t run this one. When I stopped him, I’m trying to get him to get out. At least, mean you saw when you guys got here. He kept telling me no,” an officer is heard saying on the body camera footage.
Medical attention was provided to the driver at the scene. Police claim they thought the driver was going to flee and did not know if he or the passenger in the truck had any weapons.
According to TPD’s K-9 policy, before deploying, the handler should consider the severity of the crime, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to officers or citizens and whether the suspect is actively resisting or attempting to evade arrest by hiding or fleeing.