Philadelphia Police Department Launches Investigation After Cop Allegedly Deletes Suspect’s Recorded Footage of the Arrest

A Philadelphia police officer might be hit with a lawsuit soon after unintentionally recording himself doing something illegal.

According to the police report, in March, a Philadelphia cop, Officer John Burnett spotted a pickup truck idling for 10-15 minutes at a gas station, so officers ran the plates and identified the driver as Jacob Giddings.

Officer Burnett asked Giddings to step out of the vehicle because he had an active assault warrant, and when he “started to resist,” Burnett used force to take him out.

Burnett’s body camera, on the other hand, was enabled, and it caught Giddings allegedly recording the event on his phone from inside his truck. The police report makes no note of this.

Burnett’s body cam shows that Giddings appeared to have lost his phone during the struggle. The officer later picked up the phone and appeared to obtain access to the recording after Giddings was taken into custody. He executes a few commands, but it’s unclear what he performed based on the footage.

From the backseat of the police car, Giddings can be heard asking Burnett if the video is still on his phone, to which the cop replies that he has no idea — but Giddings believes Burnett deleted the footage.

According to the police report, Giddings was also found to have marijuana, and he was arrested and charged with one count of resisting arrest and one count of narcotics possession. He had minor scratches to his wrist from the shackles during the arrest and was sent to the hospital for treatment.

Giddings has retained counsel, and his lawyer, Donte Mills of Mills & Edwards LLP, told TMZ that they would sue the Philadelphia Police Department for excessive force and assault, tampering with evidence, false arrest, and malicious prosecution.

According to Mills, they were able to recover Giddings’ arrest footage from his iCloud account afterward. Giddings is still being prosecuted, and he doesn’t believe Burnett has been disciplined.

“This incident is currently under investigation with our Internal Affairs Bureau. The officer involved has been placed on administrative duty status pending the outcome of the internal investigation,” according to Philadelphia Police.