Body-camera footage from a Los Angeles police officer allegedly shows him fondling the breasts of a corpse.
The officer, whose name has not been released to the public, was removed from duty while authorities investigate the footage and department policies to determine if the officer should be fired, according to the Washington Post.
“There is an official investigation of this officer, who was caught on camera fondling a woman,” LAPD spokesman Tony Im told the Washington Post.
The fondling was uncovered during a random review of body-camera footage. The inspection came after the LAPD police chief and police union agreed last month to permit random reviews of footage in hopes of ensuring that officers are acting appropriately while in uniform.
During the incident, two officers responded to a home after getting reports that it could contain a dead woman. When one of those officers left the room, the officer in question turned off his body camera and began rubbing the breasts of the corpse.
Although the officer might have thought he was covering his tracks, the body cameras issued to officers use a buffer that saves footage from two minutes prior to the camera being clicked back on. The abuse was captured in those two minutes.
After the revelation, LAPD is now investigating past calls that the officer responded to.
“We are going to look at all the evidence,” said LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein. “We’re going to review body-worn video. We are going to talk to witnesses.”
LAPD assistant chief Robert Arcos said the footage was “very disturbing” and the police union said in a statement that if the allegations are true, “Then the behavior exhibited by this officer is not only wrong, but extremely disturbing, and does not align with the values we, as police officers, hold dear.”
