SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A widely seen video of an 11-year-old girl handcuffed and crying on a snowy sidewalk has prompted criticism of an upstate New York sheriff’s office, which changed its policy for detaining children during criminal investigations.
Deputies with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office were looking for a girl spotted in a stolen car on Monday in Syracuse when they stopped the 11-year-old Black girl, who was wearing similar clothing and spotted six blocks away. The girl was handcuffed for about seven minutes before deputies determined she was not the person they were looking for, according the department.
“Upon detainment, deputies diligently tried to quickly compare the juvenile with video evidence obtained via dashcam,” police said in a release late Tuesday. “In that comparison, it was clear that the detained juvenile was not the suspect we were seeking, and she was immediately released.”
Video taken by a person at the scene shows the girl standing in a pink jacket with her hands cuffed behind her back as two deputies detain her. The girl’s friends try to convince the deputies they have the wrong person. The girl weeps as she is released.
A New York Civil Liberties Union organizer criticized officers for handcuffing “a scared child.”
“This mistreatment raises serious concerns about implicit racial bias, which too often leads law enforcement officers to perceive children of color as a threat,” NYCLU senior organizer Victoria Coit said in a prepared statement.
Sheriff Toby Shelley met with the girl’s mother to listen to her concerns. He agreed that it will be department policy from now on to notify a parent or guardian when juveniles are detained in criminal investigations. Parents used to notified only when an arrest was made, according to the department.
The sheriff’s office said detainees, even juveniles, are routinely handcuffed to prevent them from fleeing, fighting or destroying evidence.