Traffic stop of Little Rock activist probed

Complaint taken to board meeting

A Little Rock Police Department vehicle is shown in this file photo.
A Little Rock Police Department vehicle is shown in this file photo.

A patrol officer's traffic stop of a well-known Little Rock activist last month is under investigation, according to the Little Rock Police Department.

Brittany Dawn Jeffrey, 31, was pulled over Feb. 23 on John Barrow Road, where the traffic stop quickly spiraled into a confrontation with officer Jalen Salaam.

According to video of the incident, Salaam approached her car and accused Jeffrey of making an obscene hand gesture. As he sought to examine her motor vehicle documents, Jeffrey upbraided the officer.

She then exited her vehicle and circled behind the patrol car while the officer was inside, leading him to exit the vehicle and grab her, according to the footage.

[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hml4RDRi8Y]

Last summer, Jeffrey served as a lead organizer of a series of Black Lives Matter protests at local Walmart stores.

She and four others face federal charges brought by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas related to vandalism and the attempted firebombing of police vehicles.

A grand jury indictment handed up in February accused Jeffrey and the other defendants of conspiring to damage police property by puncturing tires and using Molotov cocktails in connection with incidents that occurred last year.

Although she was initially jailed after her arrest on the federal charges in mid-December, Jeffrey was released shortly thereafter.

Jeffrey pleaded innocent when she and her co-defendants were arraigned in federal court last month.

In a phone interview Friday, Jeffrey described the Feb. 23 stop initiated by Salaam. She said she was handcuffed and placed in the back of the police vehicle, but was eventually released.

Her daughter was in her vehicle when the traffic stop occurred, she said.

Jeffrey told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that prior to the traffic stop, while driving, she had her hand out of the window, tapping her fingers on the top of the vehicle. The police vehicle was traveling in the road alongside her, she said.

When the patrol vehicle's lights came on, she gave him the middle finger, Jeffrey said.

"Which I don't even know if he saw or anything like that, 'cause I think he was kind of like behind me at the time," she said.

In video from the body camera worn by Salaam, the officer approaches Jeffrey as she sits in the driver's seat of her vehicle on the side of the road.

Jeffrey, holding her phone up to Salaam as if to record him, asks, "What law did I break? What are you pulling me over for?"

"Why [did] you flip us off?" Salaam asks.

Jeffrey tells him he cannot pull her over for thinking she flipped him off, and says she will report him. She hands him her documents and he walks back to a patrol vehicle.

Back in his vehicle, Salaam picks up his radio. "Hey, I'ma be on Facebook. I just pulled over Dawn Jeffrey," he says.

He adds moments later, "I'm [going to] go, I don't -- I don't wanna deal with her."

Moments later, Salaam exits his vehicle again to confront Jeffrey, who has left her vehicle. In the video, Jeffrey can be seen walking behind Salaam's patrol car.

He tells her she is making a scene. Salaam then grabs at her arm and shirt, reaching for the cellphone gripped in her right hand. Jeffrey screams, and the video cuts off.

'TRAINING ISSUE'

Additional video of the encounter shows another police official at the scene speaking to Salaam, who explains what happened during the traffic stop and expresses frustration with Jeffrey getting out of the car and yelling before he was prepared to hand back her documents to her.

Salaam explains he put his hands on her to try to get her to put her phone down and to put her in handcuffs.

The officer on the scene later can be heard conferring with someone over the phone about the circumstances of the traffic stop. At one point, he mentions the need to "write up like a training issue" related to Salaam not being aware that the hand gesture was not grounds for a disorderly conduct violation.

The officer explains the situation to Salaam, telling him that although Jeffrey's behavior after the traffic stop "probably did fit the statute," the initial hand gesture was protected by the First Amendment.

Jeffrey told the Democrat-Gazette that she was eventually released from the handcuffs and asked to come to a police station, but she declined. She estimated that the entire episode lasted 30-45 minutes.

Videos of the interactions between Jeffrey and officers at the scene were published online this week by a YouTube channel associated with the "Bad City of Little Rock" blog, a site critical of the Police Department and city government.

Little Rock police spokesman Mark Edwards on Thursday confirmed an investigation into the incident, which he said is ongoing. Salaam has not been placed on leave, according to Edwards.

TO THE BOARD

Jeffrey attended a Little Rock Board of Directors meeting Tuesday and described the Feb. 23 traffic stop to city directors.

The same day, she brought the incident to the attention of board members in an email, writing, "The City of Little Rock in cooperation with the LRPD has worked together to target and harass me."

"This has to stop," she added. "The city's job is to protect it's [sic] citizens. Even if that means from the police. Which I have came before this board several times and expressed that they lack training that shouldn't come at our expense."

During the meeting Tuesday, City Director Doris Wright of Ward 6 said it was the first she had heard of the incident and asked for a report from Little Rock Police Chief Keith Humphrey.

In response, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said it is public knowledge that an investigation is ongoing.

Later in the meeting, at-large City Director Antwan Phillips said he heard Jeffrey and others who had raised concerns over the episode in their comments to the board.

The city's mission statement is "to provide a vibrant, safe and innovative city, and that includes interaction with the Police Department," Phillips said.

In the interview, Jeffrey described feeling targeted and "constantly being harassed." She said she has been pulled over twice since December.

She said she has not received a response from a complaint she filed with the Police Department's Internal Affairs office.

Jeffrey said that "when you feel like you're being violated, at what point, you know, are they just going to keep getting away with it?"

"And then just the whole laughing just threw me off, like he was laughing the whole time," she added. "Like, 'I'm going to get away with this,' you know? Like, this is cool."

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