foreign [Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers administrative duties officer discretion and police Authority and is brought To Us by the Columbus Ledger inquirers Channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve on the night of July 16 2022 several officers from the Columbus Police Department in Columbus Georgia gathered outside the Muskogee County Jail awaiting their turn to book suspects that they had apprehended as part of a weekend crime suppression detail coordinated with the Georgia State Patrol prior to conducting the operation Muskogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman asked the Columbus pde to call off the procedure citing overcrowding issues within the jailhouse the Columbus PD ignored Sheriff countryman's request and pursued the detail anyway in response Sheriff Countryman instructed the jail staff to process prisoners in the following priority Muskogee deputies first state patrol officers second and Columbus police officers third this resulted in multiple officers from the Columbus PD being forced to wait outside the jail as suspects captured by the sheriff's department were processed first the body camera footage begins as Muskogee Deputy Blaine Atkins arrives at the jail with the suspects and cuts in front of Corporal Christopher Snipes from the Columbus PD who had already been waiting to book his suspect for several minutes but bear in mind that the text you see throughout this video is from the original upload and not added by this channel also the first few seconds of the footage is blurred for the protection of the citizens involved but it clears up momentarily [Music] watch this oh yeah yeah I'm gonna follow I'm gonna file a complaint a legitimate a million button go at home Central let's be one please Lieutenant nests are about to get a complaint that is the most unprofessional thing I've ever seen in my life hey [Music] [Music] of you guys decision [Music] because I'm about to have I'm about to have a stroke this is a failure of justice and the jail does not like us so we have five people sitting here outside waiting it's wonderful the sheriff is very pissed with us okay and he runs the jail so while on the phone Columbus officer Colby Saunders reiterates that he and his fellow officers are not being allowed to process inmates because Sheriff Countryman is angry with their Department the administrative authority over jails varies dramatically from state to state and Depends largely on where the jail is located and how it was funded in Georgia counties and municipalities can form Regional Jail authorities which share the administrative Authority and financial burden of operating and maintaining a jail under section 42-4-93 of the Georgia Code quote municipalities located in more than one County May participate in Municipal Regional Jail authorities in each County in which the municipality is located this code is designed to accommodate large metropolitan areas which may require more inmate space than average sized cities or towns and fall within the jurisdiction of multiple counties however section 42-4-104 of the Georgia code clarifies that quote notwithstanding anything contained in this article no participant County or participant municipality shall be prohibited from establishing and maintaining any jail or jail holding facility this means that jails are not required to be operated jointly by the surrounding counties or municipalities and one city or county can have exclusive control over their respective jail facility however in 1970 the city of Columbus and the county of Muskogee created a Consolidated Government body under section 1-100 of the Columbus code of ordinances meaning that the city and the county combined their governments into one functioning body section 8-100 further clarifies that the sheriff of Muskogee County quote shall be the sheriff of the Consolidated Government although the Muskogee County Jail's website states that it was quote funded by revenue bonds the Consolidated nature of the local Columbus government seems to indicate that sheriff Countryman may not possess exclusive administrator rate of authority over the jail which brings into question whether he actually retained the authority to dictate which order suspects were to be booked into the jail once Deputy Atkins finishes booking his inmate he attempts to return to his vehicle and exit the jail but the bay door of the Jail's Hangar is blocked by a CPD patrol car Deputy Atkins asks the CPD officers to move their car but Columbus Sergeant Vincent Lockhart Jr orders them not to away anyway all right so so I got a call to go to I can't go to the car because y'all want to play stupid childish game it ain't not no it ain't because of me man I got nothing to do with that because I got nothing to do with that it ain't my car ain't got nothing to do with me myself in the park somebody of course [Music] the altercation continues inside the jail Bay where Deputy Atkins tells the Columbus officers that he will quote drive on by if he sees them in danger while on duty we will discuss the legality of the Columbus officers blocking in the Muskogee Deputy in a moment but it should be noted that Deputy Atkins would not be under any legal obligation to Aid the Columbus officers in a dangerous situation or anyone else for that matter in the 1989 Supreme Court case of deschaney versus Winnebago City DSS the Court held that quote the affirmative duty to protect arises not from the state's knowledge of the individual's predicament or from its expressions of intent to help him but from the limitations which it is imposed on his freedom to act on his own behalf through imprisonment institutionalization or other similar Restraint of personal Liberty which essentially means that the government including police officers is only obligated to protect citizens who are in their custody and unless a citizen has been restrained in some way by a government official then police officers are well within their authority to refuse to help or protect them several modern cases have reaffirmed the Court's perspective on this matter including a recent ruling by the U.S court of appeals for the 11th circuit which concluded that police could not be held liable for failing to protect students in the 2018 shooting that claimed 17 lives at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida considering the legal precedent surrounding Deputy Atkins threat as it is entirely possible they would not be punished for allowing another officer or a citizen to be harmed in his presence I don't know but I'm probably gonna quit this is this is so stupid listen man I'm only doing what my supervisor told me I understand this is ridiculous and I I hate that I'm dealing with it but you're gonna have to talk to the sergeant over there we'll be talking to the chief hey chief I'm sorry we got a situation over here we got CPD won't let our guys out and they're about to go to blows I'm asking your CPD officer and this is he's saying that his supervisor and again no one no one on our side is threatening we're having a tit for Tad over here hold on hold on roll down your window yes I know most of us are kind of at a standstill do I have anybody on Forest Road reference to 7511 sorry I think we're all standing on the wall yeah hey move your corporate fantastic all right who are you charging hey he's with the chief sorry sorry go ahead back it up back it up all right hey fan base no you stay right there man hey oh sorry sorry now your sergeant over here tell him nothing in everybody in um I try to get through and they immediately halfway open and shut it on me and I hear that there's a deputy sentence behind the radio that female officer is trying to get get into the door do not let her in that door do not let any officer through that door from PD from from the Jailer the jailers are saying that through their reading so they won't even let us through the door there's one person inside there and now they let the sheriff they book the sheriff guys out not in he's like they screamed at us to move our vehicles they won't even let any of our guys in they won't book any of our guys don't even let us in to use the bathroom for nothing nothing this is the I think this is where this is it this is this is as bad as it can get look we can't principle someone's crying man yeah this is as bad as it's pretty bad dude was about he was saying I'm about to arrest you for obstruction yeah this guy's got a call but then my Sergeant's telling me not to move right and then when I started back in he told me to stop again what about arrested all them for not doing their job all right all right crazy I really wish it's not my car right there dude I'm gonna leave the keys in there dude I really not wanting to to be a part of a to get charged with a crime dude for a stand dude I'm telling you right now though Corporal Fairbanks reveals that Deputy Atkins threatened to arrest him for obstruction if he didn't move his patrol car and tells the other officers that he doesn't want to be involved in the altercation or risk being arrested under section 16-10-24 of the Georgia Code a person who quote knowingly and willfully obstructs or hinders any law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of his or her official duties shall be guilty of a misdemeanor in the 2005 case of golden versus State the Georgia court of appeals held that quote verbal exchanges which convey no threat of force or violence but which otherwise obstruct or hinder a law enforcement officer in the lawful discharge of His official duties can authorize a conviction for misdemeanor obstruction and that even minor actions such as arguing running away and lying are all examples of conduct that could constitute obstruction it seems clear that preventing a member of law enforcement from returning to do Duty by blocking in their patrol vehicle would certainly constitute a violation of Georgia's obstruction code as discussed many times on ATA members of law enforcement are subject to the very same laws as average citizens and it is possible that a court could conclude that Deputy Atkins was within his authority to arrest Corporal Fairbanks for refusing to move his patrol car eventually Columbus Police Captain Greg Touchberry arrived on the scene in an attempt to de-escalate the situation uh possession schedule 2 obstruction and regulated objects all right get in your car pull your feet go outside get in a car pull your prison right in the fence so let her go I mean court date and let me go to court off CPD present the jail and you see me out there on the between the street between the building or the FL and the CPD we'll have our meeting let's have a seat watch your head okay sad man they doing this legs okay the Columbus officers left the jail and attended an impromptu meeting with Captain Touchberry where they decided to release all their detainees with a court summons despite them all having felony charges at one point during the interaction the Columbus PD Dispatch can be heard calling for a unit to respond to a burglary in progress but an officer replies that they're all on the wall meaning that they are stuck at the jail with their detainees following the incident Sheriff Countryman met with Columbus Police Chief Freddie Blackman mayor skip Henderson city manager Isaiah Hughley and City Attorney Clifton Fay Who The Ledger Inquirer reported as agreeing that the jail needs to be involved in planning future crime suppression operations it was also reported that both Chief Blackman and Sheriff countrymen have said that they believe conflicts between the two agencies have been exaggerated and that what happened that weekend has not affected their working relationship overall both the Columbus officers and the Muskogee deputies get a c-minus for failing to establish adequate communication between their departments the neglecting to consider the implications their actions may have on the safety of the general public and for engaging in a petty unprofessional and nearly physical altercation it is difficult to point to any one officer or deputy's actions as the primary culprit for how this interaction unfolded and there is an argument to be made that this encounter occurred as a result of poor leadership within both respective departments it is clear that many of the officers and deputies involved felt as though they were caught in the collateral damage of an upper management battle that they didn't want to be a part of this was particularly true for Corporal Fairbanks who was both ordered to block the jail exit and threatened to be arrested if he did so the true onus of the ignored 9-1-1 call can be placed on Sheriff Countryman and chief Blackman and their failure to coordinate or effectively communicate this interaction showcases how poor leadership can materialize into real-world breakdowns of communication and relatively disastrous consequences for both the Departments involved and the community communities they serve let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out my second channel for even more police interaction content [Music]