Formal complaints were made against two police officers in Wheaton, Maryland, by residents after the officers cited three teens for walking down the middle of the street. The police wanted to keep them from getting killed.
According to the MCPD’s website, over 100 pedestrians are killed and more than 2,500 are injured every year in Maryland due to collisions with motor vehicles.
In their formal complaint, Eduardo Ortiz and three other Wheaton residents demanded to know why the officers stopped the teens, and whether or not the stop was “legal,” WUSA reported.
The group also wanted to know if the fingerprint data the officers collected from the juveniles in order to identify them would be “expunged from the system.”
The officers had to take fingerprints according to the policy since the boys didn’t have ID on them.
The officers also took photos of them, as per policy.
Neighbor Angela Patterson said that one of the officers told her that they stopped the group as part of their “pedestrian safety week” efforts, WUSA reported.
She said that was out of line.
The boys later said they were walking along the side of the road and residents said they had to walk in the road since there are no sidewalks. As it turned out, they were walking in the driving lane.
According to MCPD Captain Thomas Jordan, the juveniles were walking in the “middle” of the roadway when the officers encountered them.
Capt. Jordan said that the department has checked out the neighbors’ complaints and determined that the officers were simply conducting “pedestrian safety education,” WUSA reported.
So, let the teens get killed? Here are officers trying to keep three dopey teens — who think nothing can harm them — from getting killed, and they get complaints from residents for it.
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