The Sacramento Police Department is facing backlash after a video of a 10-year-old Black girl being handcuffed during a raid in 2022 resurfaced.
Body camera footage from a Sacramento police officer shows the little girl in red and black pajamas being handcuffed while she is crying out for her “mommy.”
The officers were reportedly conducting a probation raid in connection with a stolen car and firearms, according to Sacramento police’s investigation. It’s unclear if the suspect was connected to the home.
In the video, three white male officers bang on the front door and windows and demand the girl open the door. Two of them then pulled on the iron grills on the security door seemingly in an effort to break it off.
“Listen. We’re gonna kick the door down, and we don’t wanna do that,” one officer says.
The girl appears hesitant but eventually followed their directions.
“I’m a baby,” the girl can be heard saying when she opens the door.
“You’re not a baby if you’re not listening,” one officer replies.
The second officer yells, “Come outside right now. You don’t get to go and hide and turn off the lights. That’s not how this works.”
The teary-eyed girl is immediately handcuffed by one of the officers while the other officer starts to search the home.
“I’m scared, I’m scared, mommy,” she cries. “I’m scared I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”
The handcuffs were reportedly removed after she informed officers of her age. The girl’s identity was never revealed, but an audit report shows that she was at home with her bedridden grandmother. Her mother said she was working five minutes away from their home, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The video was played at a Sacramento City Council meeting on June 20. City Inspector General Dwight White told city council members that race played a factor in the girl being handcuffed. The video left some on the dais in tears.
“She should not have been handcuffed even for a second,” White said. “If this girl was another race, she likely wouldn’t have been handcuffed.”
The interaction was detailed in an audit conducted by the Office of Public Safety Accountability. According to multiple reports, the audit included over 100 complaints of improper search and seizure against Sacramento police officers.
The mother of the 10-year-old also submitted a formal complaint, but it was dismissed, according to the audit.
“We are certainly aware of the trauma and the impacts that something like that, an interaction with police, can have on our community. I can assure you that we will conduct outreach to the family and see what we can do to make it better,” said Police Chief Kathy Lester.
She also added that the department will work on policy to prevent similar occurrences.
“There is no circumstance where it’s OK to handcuff a 10-year-old, regardless of race,” Lester said in the council meeting on June 20.
Lester also wrote a formal statement about the incident noting that the child was only in handcuffs for 30 seconds.
The statement read in part, “The investigation involved a known gang member who was on probation and posted both pictures and videos with firearms……the officer had reasonable and articulable concerns for his safety which justified the lawful detention… no matter how legitimate the circumstances, and no matter the legal justification, SPD understands the sensitive nature of inadvertently creating harm.”
The statement also mentioned that officers spotted someone running through the house and turning off lights.
Several councilmembers condemned the officers’ lack of compassion in their response to the young girl.
“When I was a kid if I was home alone … I was taught do not answer the door to anybody and I would hide if I heard someone come to the door,” Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said. “That video was incredibly disturbing, it just feels like [a policy is] something we should have if we don’t already because that shouldn’t be happening.”
The revelation about handcuffs was among about a dozen suggestions identified in the groundbreaking audit.
It exposed a “systemic issue” where officers consistently carried out unjustifiable stops, searches, and seizures, thereby infringing upon the Fourth Amendment rights of community members, particularly those who are Black and Latino. The audit encompassed a total of 109 reported instances of improper search and seizure that occurred between June 2020 and June 2023.
Lester said she agreed with some of the findings in the audit but doesn’t believe that the department has a racial systemic issue in search and seizure practices.
Research shows Black children are often treated differently by police compared to children of other races due to implicit biases. Stereotypes and preconceptions about Black children, along with disproportionate policing in majority-minority communities, contribute to the targeting and harsher treatment they experience.
OPSA director LaTesha Watson said the mother of the girl in the video told her the 10-year-old is now “afraid of the police.”
“It could have been justified, but was it necessary? That is the biggest issue that I have here,” Watson said.
