A police officer in Colorado used evidence from Flock cameras to wrongfully accuse an innocent woman for package theft, then yelled at her on the phone when she told him she had evidence that exonerated her, according to body camera footage obtained by 404 Media.The nightmare situation happened in September in Columbine Valley, Colorado and was first reported by The Colorado Sun, which obtained Ring camera footage from the woman, Christina Elser, that showed an initial interaction with Sergeant Jamie Milliman at her home. 404 Media has obtained body camera footage of that interaction as well as footage from a phone call Milliman made to Elser after he gave her a court summons.The incident highlights not only the extreme extent to which America\u2019s cities and towns are surveilled, but also the fact that police believe this surveillance evidence, which in this case was used to wrongfully summons Elser to court, is infallible and bulletproof. It also shows that anyone can be caught in America\u2019s surveillance dragnet; there is no safety in the idea that you have nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cYou know we have cameras in that town. You can\u2019t get a breath of fresh air in or out of that place without us knowing,\u201d Milliman told Elser and her husband at her home, referring to Flock automated license plate reader cameras in the nearby town of Bow Mar. He then told her the town\u2019s Flock cameras had recorded her vehicle entering and leaving the town 20 times in the last month, including on Tuesday, September 22 \u201cfrom 11:52 until 12:09, exactly,\u201d he said. \u201cLike I said, nothing gets in or out of the town without us knowing about it \u2026 I have you on camera walking up, ringing the doorbell, taking the package, and literally running away. I have you on camera doing this \u2026 I get that this is a shock to you, but I am telling you, this is a lock, 100 percent no doubt she did this.\u201dBut Elser didn\u2019t do it. Elser was visiting her tailor\u2019s home for a dress fitting, and didn\u2019t steal the package. She had her Ring camera footage from her tailor\u2019s house and footage from her Rivian vehicle to show that she didn\u2019t steal the package, which she told Milliman on a phone call obtained by 404 Media.\u00a0\u201cWhy don\u2019t you come on down and look at the video?\u201d Elser said. Milliman refused to look at the video, and said \u201cThe next person you can tell is the judge or your lawyer. This is how this works. The judge or your lawyer.\u201dElser asked to speak to his supervisor.\u201cI am the supervisor. That is it. There is no one else to talk to,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is on camera many times. You\u2019ve been served a summons \u2026 I will bring all of my evidence, the many, many, many, many videos, and you can bring yours. And if a judge says you didn\u2019t do it then you didn\u2019t do it.\u201d\u201cWhat are going to be the repercussions when this is proven incorrectly and you\u2019re wasting my fucking time?\u201d Elser\u2019s husband told Milliman on the call.\u00a0Elser and her husband also asked Milliman to show them the evidence he had, or to answer basic questions such as what the woman on the Flock cameras was wearing in the department\u2019s video footage. \u201cYou\u2019ll have to go to court for this information,\u201d he said. \u201cI can tell you. I am not going to tell you. I can tell you, but I am not going to tell you.\u201d\u201cI\u2019m going to go to the local police department,\u201d Elser said.\u201cThis is the local police department. I am the jurisdiction,\u201d he responded.\u201cI want to talk to somebody today,\u201d Elser said.\u201cWell, that is not going to happen. It\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d Milliman said.\u201cYes, it can happen,\u201d Elser said.\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t say it couldn\u2019t happen. I said it\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d he said.\u201cNo, no, it can happen,\u201d Elser said.\u201cI agree it can, but it\u2019s not going to,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re not talking to anybody else.\u201dElser continues to explain that she has footage from her vehicle showing where she was, and that she was at her tailor\u2019s house, not stealing a package.\u201cBy the way, if your truck has GPS, I will simply request records from Rivian and do a court order to have those sent to me. I don\u2019t care where your truck was. I care where you were. Your truck didn\u2019t take the package, you did. Do you understand that? Your truck did not ring the doorbell. Your truck did not walk away with the package. You did. It doesn\u2019t matter where the truck was. It matters where you were.\u201d\u201cBut you\u2019re showing me a picture of my truck,\u201d Elser said. \u201cYou didn\u2019t show me a picture of me.\u201dLater in the conversation, Milliman says \u201cI have been doing this for 27 years. I have probable cause because I saw you. You can laugh and giggle all you want, but I have video of you. This is going nowhere because you\u2019re not being truthful with me. If you want to be truthful with me, you know how to get a hold of me. Other than that, you have a good rest of your day.\u201d He then hangs up the phone.\u00a0Milliman was disciplined with \u201cextra training\u201d after the incident, according to The Colorado Sun. A reprimand letter given to Milliman and obtained by The Colorado Sun noted that he exhibited \u201crude behavior,\u201d and that his actions were \u201cunprofessional and inconsistent with the standards expected of a sworn officer.\u201d Milliman and the Columbine Valley police department did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0Elser shared an additional voicemail with 404 Media that Milliman left her a day after the call in which he refused to look at her evidence. In this follow-up call, Milliman completely changed his tone and said he would not be willing to look at her evidence: \u201cYesterday when we had talked, you had mentioned that you had some exonerating video and I mentioned you had my email. I would love to see it,\u201d the voicemail says. \u201cIn the interest of justice and to make things right, I would love to go above and beyond and see anything that could possibly take away my probable cause for issuing the summons.\u201d Two weeks later, she sent an email to police chief Bret Cottrell containing evidence from her Rivian’s cameras, her tailor’s Ring camera, and a detailed timeline of events. Cottrell responded and said that they would be dropping the case: \u201cAfter reviewing the evidence you have provided (nicely done btw), we have voided the summons that was issued,” he wrote. “We have double checks with Jefferson County courts and the case was not yet entered into the system, therefore, there is no record on file. Thank you for getting back to us with the evidence you said you would be able to provide.\u201dIn a phone interview, Elser told 404 Media that it feels like \u201cthey\u2019ll talk to convicted murderers and rapists in a nicer way than they\u2019ll talk to me about a $25 package and me saying \u2018I have evidence I can show you and we can end this.\u2019\u201d\u00a0She said that she eventually saw video of the person taking the package.\u201cFrom a distance, I\u2019m like, \u2018kind of it was like my outfit I was wearing at the time,\u2019 but my truck isn\u2019t there at all, she had a shaved head, she\u2019s much younger, had earrings on and all that,\u201d she said. Elser said that before this experience, she was \u201cvery big on surveillance, and knowing we have cameras in our house because if something happens, I wanna know how it happens. Maybe not even a crime against me, but maybe my animals knocked something over and I wanted to know who.\u201d She said that she has dash cams because she\u2019d been involved in multiple hit-and-run car accidents.\u201cHonestly, I was one of those people that believed, \u2018well, if you\u2019re not doing anything wrong, what\u2019s the big deal?\u2019 But here\u2019s a situation where I was doing absolutely nothing wrong, and I almost lost my entire career over this,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve lost trust for law enforcement \u2026 I mean I love the Flock stories where they help out with saving a kid, and I look at them and go \u2018yeah, you did that, but you\u2019re not using the technology right.\u2019\u201d\u201cThe overreach of this technology is the biggest concern. Just having it out there is scary, it\u2019s too much,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s changed my mind immensely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"