Oklahoma City police captain arrested for DUI, asks officer to turn off bodycam

An Oklahoma Metropolis Police captain was arrested for driving below the affect whereas repeatedly asking the arresting officer to show off his physique digital camera in the course of the investigation.

Capt. James “Matt” French, 55, was pulled over on Sunday morning after an officer noticed the police veteran swerving and dashing in his unmarked, city-owned SUV, Fox 25 reported. 

In physique digital camera footage launched by the Oklahoma Metropolis Police Division on Thursday, French is seen sitting in his automobile within the driveway of the house he claims to stay in together with his mom.

Because the officer approaches the SUV, he asks French if he’s been consuming, to which he replies, “I’m a captain on the police division,” earlier than specifying he serves as a captain in Oklahoma Metropolis.

French then seemingly pointed to his chest and whispered to the officer to “flip the digital camera off.”

The officer ignored his preliminary request, asking French how a lot he needed to drink.

French, not eager to be recorded, made the identical movement towards his chest, signaling to cease the bodycam footage.

“I’m not turning my digital camera off,” the officer says in disbelief on the request.

Because the officer started his investigation, French mentioned that he’d been taking part in poker and had “three or 4” beers, together with his final drink round midnight — practically two hours after being pulled over.

When requested if it was clever for him to be driving, the captain replied, “No, however I got here from 4 blocks [away].”

French is struggling to finish varied discipline sobriety exams — unable to maintain his stability — and asks — for the third time — that the officer “please” flip his digital camera off.

“I do know you might be conscious of our bodycam coverage,” the officer instructed French. “You already know I can not flip off this bodycam.”

“I do, however I’d like to speak to you,” French mentioned.

The officer tells French — who relentlessly retains asking for the physique digital camera to be turned off — that he’ll flip it off following the conclusion of his investigation, with French reiterating that he’s a Captain.

“I’m a sergeant and I’ve taken an oath to uphold the regulation. I don’t present favoritism to anybody regardless. I don’t care for those who’re a gang banger or the President of the US,” the officer mentioned.

French was booked on the Oklahoma County Detention Heart and has since been bonded out.

French is a 32-year veteran of the Oklahoma Metropolis Police Division.

Chief Wade Gourley of the Oklahoma Metropolis Police Division praised the arresting officer’s professionalism below the barrage of requests to show his digital camera off, the outlet reported. 

“The officer did precisely as he ought to have, and dealt with it very professionally in my view. So far as how the officer responded, he did precisely as he ought to have,” Gourley mentioned.

The investigation into French’s arrest is ongoing, however Gourley mentioned the captain had been positioned on administrative go away.

“As quickly as we have been notified of the incident, he was positioned on administrative go away with pay,” Gourley mentioned in keeping with Fox 25. “We do have a course of that when felony costs are filed, per our FOP contract, we do what known as a pre-determination listening to to then put that particular person on go away with out pay, as a result of once more it’s a felony matter. So we will put him on go away with out pay, however there’s a course of we’ve got to undergo to do this.”