Lower Merion police stand behind officer who tased woman in traffic stop
BALA CYNWYD, Pa. (CBS) -- There have been calls for accountability from the NAACP and the Pennsylvania Black Caucus after video showed Lower Merion police officers tasing a woman during a traffic stop.
Lower Merion police provided more context behind a traffic stop Tuesday.
They released the body camera and dash cam video of the stop. Parts of the video can be hard to watch.
The traffic stop happened on January 8 where an unarmed Black woman was tased and pulled from her car. Lower Merion police called the officer's actions legal but say he didn't follow the best practices.
Police say for nearly two and a half minutes the driver, now identified as Chaine Jordan, 36, refused to pull over.
Cellphone video then picks up the traffic stop in the parking lot of the Wawa at Conshohocken State and Rockhill Roads in Bala Cynwyd. Officers demanded the driver exit her car after police say she was stopped for tailgating.
That's where things escalated. Police say the car's windows were tinted and officers had reason to be concerned.
As the woman refused orders, you can hear an officer threaten to break the car's window. The woman asked for a sergeant as she screamed, refused to get out of the car and tried putting her windows up.
Witnesses say she was tased multiple times, dragged onto the pavement and arrested.
The Lower Merion superintendent said his officer could have tried to do more to de-escalate the situation.
"We will be taking lessons learned in this incident to focus on several key factors and training," Superintendent Mike McGrath said. "Such as handling stressful situations at pivotal moments, the overall goal in how stress may divert from that mission slowing things down can be your most powerful tactic."
The officer remains on desk duty as an internal disciplinary review is completed. CBS Philadelphia was told he will undergo additional training.
"We can sometimes fail, our officers are human," McGrath said.
As for that driver, she has now been charged with several offenses including resisting arrest, driving with a suspended license and possession of a controlled substance.
