A police officer in Clayton County, GA is under investigation after he uploaded a questionable video to Facebook. Officer Anthony Walker of the Clayton County Police recorded a 10-second video and sent it to an unnamed female acquaintance via his personal Facebook account. The video shows the officer in uniform, apparently driving his patrol car, splitting his attention between the road and the camera and saying, "I can't drive and Facebook. It's illegal, it's against the law. No. No."
The video's recipient was amused at first, but then decided to rat the distracted officer out. She posted the video to her Facebook page with the status, "This is Clayton County, Georgia police officer Anthony Walker making a mockery of Georgia state law by Facebooking while driving his police cruiser."
"The officer involved in the incident has taken full responsibility for filming it (the video) in a patrol vehicle while on duty, and also he has written a memo, and we are currently investigating the incident," said Clayton County Police Chief Michael Register.
Chief Register told 11Alive that the department is investigating possible departmental violations Officer Walker may have committed, including driving unsafely and publishing a video in uniform without approval. Register also said that he believes that Officer Walker was simply joking with someone on Facebook.
"I think that many times across the nation, people who work at various organizations sometimes do things on social media that, when they really think about it, probably with they hadn't," said Chief Register. "We have a progressive discipline matrix that we use here at the police department. And certainly we're going to be fair to the young man while assuring that there's accountability imposed."
When asked about any possible disciplinary actions to be taken against Officer Walker, Chief Register refused to speculate further. The chief also stated that the issue at hand isn't what Officer Walker said in the video, but that he made it at all.
"The thing that disturbs me is the deviation of his attention," said Register. "He needs to be paying attention to the road, not looking down at a recording device. And of course there are departmental policies that we're looking at that he may be in violation of. Operating a vehicle is serious whether you're a police officer or whether you're a citizen."
The video's recipient was amused at first, but then decided to rat the distracted officer out. She posted the video to her Facebook page with the status, "This is Clayton County, Georgia police officer Anthony Walker making a mockery of Georgia state law by Facebooking while driving his police cruiser."
"The officer involved in the incident has taken full responsibility for filming it (the video) in a patrol vehicle while on duty, and also he has written a memo, and we are currently investigating the incident," said Clayton County Police Chief Michael Register.
Chief Register told 11Alive that the department is investigating possible departmental violations Officer Walker may have committed, including driving unsafely and publishing a video in uniform without approval. Register also said that he believes that Officer Walker was simply joking with someone on Facebook.
"I think that many times across the nation, people who work at various organizations sometimes do things on social media that, when they really think about it, probably with they hadn't," said Chief Register. "We have a progressive discipline matrix that we use here at the police department. And certainly we're going to be fair to the young man while assuring that there's accountability imposed."
When asked about any possible disciplinary actions to be taken against Officer Walker, Chief Register refused to speculate further. The chief also stated that the issue at hand isn't what Officer Walker said in the video, but that he made it at all.
"The thing that disturbs me is the deviation of his attention," said Register. "He needs to be paying attention to the road, not looking down at a recording device. And of course there are departmental policies that we're looking at that he may be in violation of. Operating a vehicle is serious whether you're a police officer or whether you're a citizen."
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