Utica, Phoenix police was caught in this video planting evidence in the suspect’s car. The public has reacted immensely to this act of corruption by the Police Officials. In the video, Utica police Officer Paul Paladino pulls a full, clear plastic baggie from his pocket before leaning into the vehicle stopped at the intersection of Clinton and Kemble streets. In the following 25 seconds of the video clip Paladino is seen walking away from the vehicle with a similar-looking baggie in his hand.

“We do feel there is concern that some wrongdoing has been done because police officers don’t place evidence in their back pocket and then take it out and climb into a suspect’s car, and then exit with the drugs unrolled,” – Venice Ervin, chairman of the Legal Redress Committee of the NAACP in Utica and Oneida County.

“You can put the evidence on your person to maintain custody of it until you have a chance to store it…Where else are you going to put it, on the ground? In the course of searching someone, sometimes the only thing you’ve got is your pockets until a short time later you can put it all together.” – Utica police Chief Mark Williams. Whether the baggie was removed from the suspect before-hand or if it was planted by the officer is still unclear.