Saratoga County, New York, Sheriff’s Deputy Suspended After Assault Video Goes Viral


[WARNING: Video contains graphic language.]

A Saratoga County, New York Sheriff’s Deputy has been suspended without pay after a video, which appears to show him assaulting someone who was neither violent nor resisting, was posted online.

In the video, the Saratoga County officer can be seen, and heard, cursing at and threatening a man. According to the Saratoga Post Star, officers had seen a rifle in the back seat of the man’s car. The man protests that he’s not going to allow the officer to search his car without a search warrant.

“We’ll get a f*cking search warrant, alright. Wanna do that? Let me see your f*cking keys.”

After the man refuses, the officer approaches the man. At :29, a sound can be heard that sounds like a slap, which the man says is exactly what happened.

“Wanna f*cking resist?”

The officer then takes the keys and tells another officer to search the car.

“If you have nothing to hide in there, we’re just going to check and be on our f*cking merry way. Understand? A**hole.”

According to Photography Is Not A Crime (PINAC), the officer did not know he was being video recorded.

After the video was posted on the internet Friday night, Saratoga County Sheriff’s Department chief Richard Castle issued a statement, which can be read here

“Earlier this evening this agency was contacted in regard to a video posted online which appeared to show an inappropriate interaction between an on-duty member of the Sheriff’s Office and a civilian during a roadside interview resulting from a suspicious vehicle complaint in the Town of Halfmoon in the early hours of November 7th.”

According to WAMC, the officer involved has been suspended without pay pending an investigation.

Although the names of the officer and civilian involved have not been officially released to the public, PINAC reports that they have spoken to the civilian, who has been identified as Colin Fitch. Further, they claim to have identified the officer in the video as Shawn Glans. As of this post, however, these statements have not been independently verified.

The statement from the Sheriff’s Department thanks the man who recorded the video for bringing it to their attention.

“The Sheriff’s Office takes matters such as this very seriously and we do not in any way condone anything less than professional behavior from our members. We wish to thank the members of the community who brought this to light and cooperated fully with the investigation.”

Earlier this week, another police assault — this time an officer pistol-whipping a teenager — was caught on video and posted on the internet.

Do you believe the Saratoga County officer in this video did anything wrong?

[Image courtesy of: Wool Edge]

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