Body camera footage shows the moment a Georgia police chief got into a confrontation with two officers who pulled him over. The chief is now accused of retaliating against the police department that the officers work for.
Two Molena police officers reportedly pulled Zebulon Police Chief Jonathan Hemphill over back in August.
WSB′s Tom Jones learned that Hemphill became very agitated and allegedly stopped the Molena Police Department from using his department’s radio channel.
“Yes sir. No need to get upset,” an officer says to Hemphill in the body camera footage. “I’m upset because I spoke to you when I come by and now you’re pulling me over,” Hemphill replies.
One of the responding officers then asks, “Why are you getting hostile?” To which, Hemphill replies, “Easy. I don’t have to talk to you.”
“Why are you coming up to me like that. I’m doing my job right,” the officer asks Hemphill after he attempts to invade her personal space. “I’m the Police Chief in Zebulon,” Hemphill then says.
The officers told Hemphill they pulled him over because of his dark window tint. When they ran his tag, it came back to a different vehicle. “It doesn’t come back to that vehicle,” the officer informs Hemphill.
“Because you ran it wrong. Somebody ran it wrong,” he replies.
Molena’s Police Chief Matthew Polk says dispatch did run it wrong at first, but ran it again and it came back as a ghost tag, meaning it was not on file because it’s used for law enforcement.
Polk said he couldn’t believe what he saw on the bodycam. “I could never see myself acting that way,” Polk told WSB.
During the stop, Polk said Hemphill called him and asked him to do something about the responding officers. Polk said that when he refused to dole out any discipline, Hemphill retaliated.
Molena officers had been using Zebulon’s radio channel to communicate with 911. “I was told we need to find another channel to work off of,” Polk said.
The City of Zebulon has since said it is looking for an independent third party to investigate the chief’s actions. Polk said this is not the way he expects a police chief to act.
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