Shooting cops 'nearly led to arrests'

04 September 2013 - 02:56 By QUINTON MTYALA
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SAPS vehicle. File photo.
SAPS vehicle. File photo.
Image: Reuben Goldberg

Two Americans said they were almost arrested for "riotous behaviour" after filming Cape Town police officers at a road block.

Pete Eyre and his partner Jacob Crawford landed in the city last Wednesday to bring their "Police Accountability Tour" - filming cops on the job - to South Africa.

Eyre said he filmed police officers in Long Street manning a road block on Saturday.

Eyre said an "undercover officer" at the scene warned him that if he did not delete the footage, he would be arrested for "riotous behaviour".

Eyre said the officer identified himself as "Dejehar" .

Eyre told Cop Block, a website that reports on police brutality and corruption, that the cops yanked him towards a police vehicle and told him he had " two choices - delete the footage or be brought to Central Booking".

Eyre later used computer software to recover the footage and posted it on YouTube.

Police spokesman Andre Traut said there was no record of the incident at the Cape Town central police station. He said while members of the public were not prevented from filming or taking pictures of police in a public road, in terms of the Criminal Procedures Act, they could be arrested if they filmed police in the process of arresting a suspect.

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