A video of LAPD officers allowing a suspect to leave the scene of a four-car accident has gone viral and raised great concern by this Californian community. After crashing his own vehicle and hitting three others, the intoxicated man stumbled away without an arrest being made.
A suspected drunk driver hit three parked cars in Los Feliz, California on August 22nd at approximately 4 p.m. Officers dispatched to the scene allegedly did not perform necessary field sobriety tests on the driver who, according to witnesses, was visibly under the influence.
According to neighbors, the man kept drunkenly falling over and yelling at everyone, including the police and firefighters. Los Feliz resident Brock Williams shared the video and photos that led fellow neighbors to question law enforcement procedures or lack thereof.
When asked about the incident, the LAPD explained that officers on the scene make the call of whether to conduct a field sobriety test. In this case, the officers’ failure to do so left many people rightfully upset. One witness stated, “he could have killed someone, he could have injured people and have done a lot more damage than he did.”
In response to the community’s frustrations, the LAPD has launched a personnel investigation to closely examine the conduct of the officers in question.
It’s true that police officers have the authority to decide if and when field sobriety tests need to be administered to a possible drunk driver. However, that means they must know how to handle an accident scene in the proper manner with respect to safety. In this particular case, it doesn’t seem like the right decision was made in regard to the intoxicated man. And now a video of it has gone viral.
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