A 13-year-old boy was stopped by Officer Cheryl Dickerson of the Roswell Police Department in Georgia for driving a golf cart on a highway. The boy was detained and searched, and when he failed to provide his mother's phone number, Sergeant Daniel Elsie employed questionable tactics, including leaving the boy in a cold patrol car with the windows rolled down and the heat off. This treatment lasted for nearly 20 minutes, potentially violating the 8th Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The incident was only investigated after a news team requested the body camera footage seven months later, and Sergeant Elsie was eventually placed on administrative leave. The Roswell Police Department's handling of the incident has raised concerns about corruption and misconduct within the department.
Here are the key facts from the text:
1. On January 2, 2018, Officer Cheryl Dickerson of the Roswell Police Department in Georgia stopped a 13-year-old boy for driving a golf cart on Highway 9.
2. The boy claimed he had borrowed the golf cart from his mother, who worked in Roswell.
3. Officer Dickerson detained the boy and placed him in the back of her patrol car.
4. Sergeant Daniel Elsie arrived on the scene and turned off the heat in the patrol car and rolled down the windows, despite the temperature being between 12 and 18 degrees.
5. The boy was left in the cold car for nearly 20 minutes before Sergeant Greg Fryson arrived and informed Sergeant Elsie that his conduct was not acceptable.
6. Sergeant Elsie then rolled up the windows and turned on the heat.
7. The boy eventually told the officers where he lived, and they took him home and released him into his mother's custody.
8. The golf cart was towed, but its owner was never located.
9. A fellow Roswell officer raised questions about Sergeant Elsie's conduct in March 2018, but he was not punished.
10. Sergeant Elsie was awarded Supervisor of the Year in April 2018, just weeks after the incident.
11. The Roswell Police Department's supervisory team scored Sergeant Elsie higher than Sergeant Fryson on their annual review, despite acknowledging that Sergeant Fryson correctly intervened in Sergeant Elsie's misconduct.
12. No official investigation was launched into Sergeant Elsie's conduct until the 11 Alive news team requested the body cam footage of the incident seven months after it occurred.
13. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation refused to take the case, and the Fulton County District Attorney was recommended to carry out the investigation.
14. Sergeant Elsie has been placed on administrative leave pending the results of the ongoing investigation.
15. The Roswell City Council approved spending $77,000 for an outside review to find out what is wrong with the department and recommend changes.