Samuel Marcum from the Lake Royale Police Department in North Carolina had lost his body cam, a vital piece of police equipment used to provide key evidence in court. When questioned about its whereabouts, Marcum told his colleagues that he had lost it during an ice storm.
However, it transpired that this wasn’t strictly true. It was actually at the bottom of Lake Royal. The evidence that this particular body cam had captured was far too embarrassing for the cop to allow to see the light of day. But even committing the footage to the icy depths of a lake wasn’t enough to keep the truth from coming out.
According to WRAL News, which cited an official source, an internal investigation at the station turned up evidence that Marcum had been sleeping with his girlfriend while on duty. To make things worse, he had been doing it in his patrol car. He remembered to take his pants off, but forgot to turn off his body cam.
Fearing the repercussions when he turned in his body cam at the end of the day, and the footage was uploaded and viewed, he instead ditched it in the lake. But his efforts were in vain.
Fired For A Fling
Once evidence came forward that Marcum had been hooking up on duty in his patrol car, he quickly came clean. He admitted that, no, he hadn’t lost his body cam in an ice storm, and yes, he had been getting frisky on the company dime.
This didn’t turn out well for the horny cop. As a result of his actions and destruction of property, he has been charged with obstruction of justice, making false official statements, injury to personal property, and conduct unbecoming of a police officer.
At present, it is unclear if he has legal representation, but it seems like a simple mistake that snowballed into something much bigger than it needed to be.
Benefits Of A Body Cam
Body Cams have become essential pieces of equipment for police and security services in recent years. Their ability to capture almost point-of-view shots of whatever the wearer is seeing has provided vital evidence for both the wearer and people involved in situations.
They take away the he-said she-said issue that has seen many unfairly convicted of crimes they aren’t guilty of. As long as police don’t turn their body cameras off, the evidence they provide is invaluable.
The body cam that Marcum threw into the lake had only captured a crime of passion.