DANVILLE, VA (WCMH)– Virginia police addressed a viral post that said officers raise the hoods of the vehicles to block dash cameras from recording what’s happening.
Shakeva Frazier took a picture of Danville, Virginia, police with their car hoods raised in hopes that police would be proactive to prevent what happened in Charlotte from happening there.
“That camera is to backup, it’s letting us know nationwide what’s going on, what’s been going on a long time. Those cameras are giving us a lot of information that we need,” Frazier told WSET.
But Danville Police Lt. Mike Wallace said that officers putting up their car hoods is a matter of vehicle maintenance.
“The engine didn’t overheat, it just got so hot, a couple of the parts have melted, well you have to take the car offline to get it fixed,” said Wallace.
It can cost thousands of dollars to fix police vehicles, and according to Wallace, no officer would put the car’s hood up during a traffic stop.
“That’s ludicrous to do that during a normal traffic stop, you don’t know, if could be a life or death situation, and let me turn my back and raise the hood so I can block the camera view when the officer already has a body worn camera on anyway. So we want to dispel that type of information that’s come from outside of our area. We want our citizens to know what the truth is,” Wallace told WSET.
A local independent group said they are looking into the matter themselves, and was doing so before the post went viral.