A black man detained for questioning last month in Deltona, Florida, recently began a partnership with officers to help others learn about police encounters.
“Joseph Griffin said he was caught by surprise when he was jogging in his neighborhood last week and suddenly surrounded by deputies,” according to Fox 35.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office deputies approached him because he matched the description of a burglary suspect.
“Hey buddy, you’re not in any trouble or anything,” one of them told Griffin in bodycam footage of the encounter. “There was a burglary that happened, you kind of fit the description. Let me just make sure that you’re not him.”
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood shared the video of the incident on his Facebook page Thursday:
Today, The West Volusia Beacon published a story with this headline: 'I fit a description': Deltona man detained while…
Posted by Mike Chitwood on Thursday, September 3, 2020
In the footage, Griffin stayed calm and pulled out his phone to record the encounter on Facebook Live.
“I’m gonna detain you, look, you’re not under arrest. I’m detaining you right now because you fit the description,” the deputy told Griffin as he placed him in handcuffs.
“We appreciate you being very cooperative,” he said while they continued to converse.
Eventually, the deputies cleared Griffin and he was free to go.
“The now registered nurse in Volusia County says his former experience as law enforcement in the military taught him to remain calm and compliant,” the Fox 35 report stated.
Sheriff Chitwood said he was proud of how both parties handled the situation and he understood why Griffin felt somewhat nervous.
“I get it. You’re out working out, and now you got nine cops around you in your neighborhood where you’re the only black guy that lives there. I mean I see that and I get it,” he commented.
Chitwood and Griffin later discussed what happened and planned to use it as a learning experience for citizens and law enforcement. The sheriff also invited him to participate in the department’s biased training series scheduled for October.
“The keyword we both talked on the phone was empathy. People need to understand how we do our job — which a lot of people don’t understand — and people need to understand when you’re being stopped what that perspective is,” the sheriff noted.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Chitwood said he believed everyone could learn from Griffin’s point of view because he listened to the officers’ side.
“Mr. Griffin is a military veteran and a medical professional, and I told him we’d train and hire him as a deputy in a second if he ever wants a new job,” he added.
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