Boise Man Is Arrested For Filming The Police

All 3 videos at 5:40
-----
A man stopped to film Boise Police in a parking garage -- then, he found himself under arrest.

"I was leaving a parking garage after work and saw officers," 29-year-old Ty Justin Werenka said. "I left the garage and came back to film what was going on. As I was leaving, police stopped me and said I was interfering."

Werenka says he is known to the Boise Police Department because of his association to Boise Mutual Aid, and he said he films police officers anytime he sees them interacting with the public. He doesn't call himself an activist, rather, he said that he's a citizen that is concerned with protecting marginalized people in Boise.

He's also been previously arrested by Idaho State Police during a protest at the Capitol and ticketed by Boise Police at another protest. The two different incidents involving Werenka were eventually dismissed.

As body camera footage obtained by KTVB and Werenka's own cell phone camera footage shows, Boise Police Corporal Denny Carter and officer Avery Westendorf were giving someone what appears to be a traffic ticket in a parking garage in downtown Boise. Werenka was leaving the garage at the time, but returned to film the incident on his phone from about 50 feet away.

On June 11, 2022, Werenka is seen on Boise Police body camera footage leaving the parking garage downtown when Carter approaches and asks, "Why are you interfering in this investigation?"

In the video, Carter is heard saying that the parking attendant had already asked Werenka to leave. Werenka countered the comment, saying the attendant didn't tell him he couldn't come back after he initially left the garage, but that he was leaving anyway.

Werenka filmed the entire interaction with his phone, which spanned about ten minutes. In the phone recording, Carter can be seen in the video moving closer to Werenka, telling him he was "interfering." Werenka is heard in the video asking Cpl. Carter what he was interfering with.

It was at that point Carter is seen slapping the cell phone out of Werenka's hands, pushing him against a wall and placing him under arrest.

During the arrest, Werenka repeatedly told Carter he was not resisting. After he was arrested and was told to sit on a curb, Carter is heard in the video saying Werenka put his phone in Carter's face and tried to assault him.

"I wasn't trying to assault you," Werenka said. "But I'm glad your camera's on."

Carter is heard in the video telling Werenka that he was arresting him for "resisting and obstructing."