PATROL CAR VIDEO PREVENTS ERRONEOUS ARREST

Just a few minutes after midnight Sunday, Grayson County Deputy Harvey
Smitherman stopped a car on FM 691 on a driving violation. In the course of
activities that followed, he arrested one man on a drug charge, but then
watched his patrol car's surveillance video tape and saw that it was a
passenger who had been involved with the drug found.

Grayson county S.O., like most other agencies in the area, installed video
cameras in patrol cars several years ago when Texas law mandated either
using them or additional paperwork to record possible racial profiling.
Instead, Grayson county S.O. Public Information Officer Roger Braziel said,
law enforcement officers have found them invaluable in several areas,
primarily for officer safety.

"If someone flees, we have it on film," Braziel said. "If somebody accuses
a deputy of wrong-doing, we can look at the tape, which can show if there
was actually any wrongdoing. Since we've had video and audio in our cars,
it has enhanced our performance as deputies."

The driver in Sunday's incident, when Smitherman asked for his license,
said he had to get out of the car to get to it, reported Braziel. The
driver was reaching into his pockets when the two passengers, also men, got
out. Smitherman was watching all men at the same time when he saw a glass
object fall on the ground very near the driver. According to Braziel,
Smitherman, with Deputy Ryan Miller as backup, discovered the glass held a
paper towel stuffed over four white rock-like substances, which the
deputies believed to be cocaine.

Smitherman placed the driver under arrest and called for a tow truck. While
waiting, he reviewed the video tape, where he watched the man who got out
of the back seat throw the glass container beneath the vehicle, where it
landed closer to the driver's feet.

He explained to the driver what had happened, Braziel said, released the
driver, then placed the passenger under arrest.

The passenger, an Irving man, 25, remains in Grayson County Jail in lieu of
$6,000 bail on a charge of possession of controlled substance and a $285
fine on a charge of public intoxication.