AUSTIN - The Austin Police Department has released the dash cam video of an incident that put the department into the international spotlight.
A local crime blogger accused officers of being too aggressive and racial profiling. After Scott Henson blogged about the incident, it was picked up by media outlets all over the world. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said Tuesday that he released the video to clear his officers' names.
An APD dispatcher received a call on Feb. 11 from a woman who claims a caucasian man was chasing after a young African-American girl near the Millennium Youth Center in East Austin.
"Does he have the little girl," asked the 911 dispatcher.
"Yes," the caller replied. "He is a white guy and the little girl is a black little girl. She's running from him."
The man was Henson. The five-year old girl was his granddaughter. In his Grits For Breakfast blog, which focuses on police issues, Henson wrote that he and his granddaughter were terrified as nine Austin police officers approached and surrounded them with tasers drawn.
"Mr. Henson described that our officers jumped out, a gaggle of officers, and I am paraphrasing, with their tasers pointed at him," said Chief of Police Art Acevedo. "When you see this video of him, you will see that simply is not the case."
"Okay, listen to me," said the officer in the video. "We got a call that this was a kidnapping. Okay? Is that your girl? Is that your granddaughter?"
"Yes it is," said Henson. "It isn't a kidnapping now."
Acevedo says his officers responded in a professional manner without regard to race of the victim or the suspect.
"Had that been a real legitimate kidnapping and we would have responded with one or two officers in a nonchalant manner," said Acevedo. "The same exact critics that are criticizing us now would be saying that the Austin Police Department did not care about an African-American little girl being kidnapped from the youth center."
Henson has since posted that he made a mistake and that the tasers were never out of their holsters. However, by that time his story had already gone viral.
"I personally feel he owes an apology to the men and women of the Austin Police Department," said Acevedo.
APD also released several e-mails between Henson and Acevedo. In one, Henson says in part, "I stand by all but one narrow element of what I said about your officers treatment ... You are certainly spreading one-sided information."
Henson wrote another blog post responding to the chief.
