Man Who Filmed Sleeping Cop: Officer 'Not Keeping My Neighborhood Safe'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The man who posted a Facebook video showing a Chicago cop sleeping on the job was offering a glimpse into why he filmed the police officer.
In an email response to questions from WBBM Newsradio, the man who recorded the video said he had seen the same officer sleeping on the job before, so he decided to film it. He said he shot the video weeks ago, and posted it on Saturday, because he wanted to show the officer "was not concerned with his own safety, let alone anyone else."
The man said, if someone had walked up to the officer and killed him, he would have been murdered "on his own time, and not keeping my neighborhood safe."
The officer was filmed sleeping inside a marked Chicago Police SUV, in broad daylight, near 63rd Street and Campbell Avenue.
"People get shot and killed at all the time. They just killed some shorty not too long ago," the man said, narrating as he approaches the officer's marked SUV. "Took his f****** phone and f****** life right there. I guess that's what this young guy right here is supposed to be doing, but he's not."
The man who recorded the video walked up to the SUV's open passenger window, and took a close-up video of the sleeping officer, who was wearing sunglasses and a protective vest as he sits in the driver's seat of the SUV, and didn't budge once during 50 seconds the camera is recording him.
"Still right here asleep. Police officer still here sleeping. Ain't f****** moving. Ain't looked at me not once," the man who filmed it said on the video.
The Chicago Police Department said it is aware of the video – which has since been removed from Facebook, but is still available on at least one other website – and is investigating the incident.
"From all appearances this incident is not in keeping with the high expectations placed on our officers by this department and the residents of Chicago — which is unacceptable," Chicago Police Department spokesman Martin Maloney said in a statement.
The officer could face disciplinary action.