A Boise officer threw a handcuffed Black teen to the ground. Chief calls it unacceptable

On a late November night, Boise Police Officer Tyson Cooper approached a 17-year-old Black youth. Cooper antagonized him, handcuffed him and threw him onto the sidewalk, causing him to hit a street sign.

The incident was depicted in a nearly 50-minute body camera video that showed the 17-year-old, along with another Black minor, stopped by police. They were detained for being out past the city’s midnight curfew, according to a police report. Police also said the teenagers “matched the description” of suspects in several vehicle burglaries, yet no stolen items were ever found on them.

Body camera footage, newly obtained by the Idaho Statesman after a public records request, revealed details of the incident in November 2019 that prompted an internal affairs complaint against Cooper, which was closed in 2020.

The public airing of the incident comes at a time when the Boise Police Department and mayor’s office have come under scrutiny after the resignation of former Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee and the termination of police oversight director Jesus Jara. The video footage was a cause for concern from city officials, who scrambled to respond as they anticipated its public release.

Boise Interim Police Chief Ron Winegar called the video “troubling” in an internal email.

“The incident occurred in 2019 and the video footage is troubling,” Winegar told the police department’s staff in a Feb. 22 email the Statesman obtained through a records request. “It was investigated by (the Office of Internal Affairs) at the time and the case was closed. The involved officers are aware of the video being released, and I wanted to make sure you were aware as well, since you may be encountering the ramifications of it later this week.”

Winegar told the Statesman in an interview Tuesday that the police department’s internal affairs office reviewed and investigated the incident, after being notified by a supervisor and watch commander. The investigation found that “the sum of the conduct depicted in the video was clearly unacceptable,”

Winegar said. Winegar added that corrective action — which could be anything from counseling to termination — was taken. He declined to specify what kind. The investigation was closed in April 2020, mayoral spokesperson Maria Weeg told the Statesman in an email.

Cooper, a nearly seven-year veteran of the police department, is still employed as a senior patrol officer, and he previously taught use-of-force classes.

“We believe that the investigation was thorough and adequate and appropriate at the time,” Winegar told the Statesman on Tuesday, when asked whether the investigation would be reopened. “We do not have plans to reopen it based on it becoming a news story.”