The Louisville police officer who arrested the world’s top golfer, Scottie Scheffler, late last week did not have his bodycam recorder turned on during the incident.
ESPN reported that a spokesperson for the Louisville Metro Police Department confirmed reports that the officer’s body-worn camera (BWC) was not activated even though the department’s procedures mandate officers “maintain their BWC in a constant state of operational readiness.”
“There is no body-worn camera footage of the initial encounter,” the spokesman told the publication. “The incident is under review internally and will proceed through the judicial process. We would like to restate that all parties involved are fully cooperating. LMPD is committed to a thorough investigation for all involved.”
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg told the Courier-Journal that the officer “did not have body cam footage turned on during the incident.”
“We will release footage that we have … to my knowledge, we have not yet discovered any video of the initial contact between Officer [Bryan] Gillis and Mr. Scheffler,” Greenberg added.
Officers are “mandated” to “immediately activate their BWC in recording mode prior to engaging in all law enforcement activities or encounters,” according to department policies.
Department policy states that bodycams are to be activated “to record all calls for service and law enforcement activities/encounters (e.g. arrests, citations, stops, pursuits, Code 3 operations/responses, searches, seizures, interviews, identifications, use of force incidents, collisions, transports, warrants, official conversations on departmental smartphones, etc.).”
Scheffler was arrested in what he and his attorney said was a misunderstanding between the officer and Scheffler.
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He was charged with second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic, according to a court document. The second-degree assault charge is a felony, while the others are misdemeanors.
“Scottie was advised to go around and turn left into the facility to come and do his pre-round preparation. The officer who charged him obviously didn’t know that,” said Steve Romines, Scheffler’s lawyer. “And so, he did what he was instructed to do. And the arresting officer didn’t think he was supposed to be doing that. And so that’s where the miscommunication occurred.”
Romines noted that Scheffler was in a marked courtesy vehicle with his credentials visible when he drove up to the facility.
“I’ve got to talk to prosecutors,” he said. “[The charges will] either be dropped or we’ll go to trial because he didn’t do anything wrong. So we’re not interested in any sort of settlement negotiations or anything like that. He didn’t do anything wrong. It was just a big miscommunication.”
