Shakeva Frazier said she didn’t think twice when she saw police with their car hoods up. It wasn’t until she saw a post on Facebook that led her to believe that police were blocking their dash cams.

“That camera is the backup that’s been letting us know, nationwide, what’s been going on for a long time,” Frazier said. “Those cameras are giving us a lot of information that we need.”

Danville Police Lt. Mike Wallace said officers were told to raise their hoods when their cars are idling for long periods. They started doing it during a heat wave in late August.

“The engine didn’t overheat, it just got so hot that some of the parts had melted,” Wallace said. “Well, we’ve got to take the car off line when that happens, to get it fixed.”

That cost thousands of dollars, and it means fewer police cars are patrolling the streets. Plus, it’s a safety hazard for the officers, Wallace said.

“It’s ludicrous to do that during normal traffic stops,” he said of raising police car hoods. “You don’t know. It could be nothing, or it could be a life-or-death situation – and, ‘Let me turn my back and raise the hood, so I can block the camera view,’ when the officer already has a body camera on, anyway.

“So, we want to dispel this type of information that’s come from outside of our area. We want our citizens to know what the truth is.”

– Newschannel 6