VIDEO: The CPD Overview Committee Believes Officer Dowd Should Be Fired

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – A committee designed to be a link between residents and the Columbus Police Department recommends an officer be fired.

The Overview Committee met this morning at CPD Headquarters.

This all started with a traffic stop back in August.

Thursday’s vote is only a recommendation, but it carries some weight.

It was a unanimous decision.

The committee believes officer Keith Dowd should be terminated.

Although they voted on this recommendation, the decision falls in the city’s lap at the next city council meeting.

CPD Overview Committee members, councilmen, the mayor, and police chief watched in silence, as video from an August 18th traffic stop played out at the special called meeting.

Officer Keith Dowd’s behavior on that stop was discussed in executive session for almost two hours.

“We’re not involved in any cover-ups and we’re not trying to take sides. We’re on the side of right. We love our police department and we love our community and we’re on the side of right. Whenever we see something that’s not right, we’re going to stand up for them,” says committee chairman, Dr. Steven L. James, SR.

In the video, you can hear Dowd tell the driver to keep his hands on the steering wheel and what came next, helped lead some in the group to call the video disgusting.

Committee member Tiffany Turner, worries what could have happened, if the driver didn’t keep his cool like he did.

“Given the climate that has been going on in Columbus, someone had already taken the time out to talk to him and explain to him how important it is to just get home, you know, in a situation like that because that cop looks like he just had something on his shoulders and he was just looking for a reason to do something to someone.”

Turner says it was a heated executive session discussion, but everyone ended on the same page.

“To me, it’s definitely, looks like racial profiling to me in the picture, so some people are a bit timid about talking about the elephant in the room, you know, but we have to talk about stuff like that because that’s the only way we’re going to get over that,” says Turner.

“I don’t believe that this was a racial issue. I think it was just a poor issue of, you know, inappropriate conduct, you know, just the issue of conduct of unbecoming of an officer,” says Columbus Police Chief Oscar Lewis.

Mayor Robert Smith says Dowd was terminated from other agencies, which makes some question why the officer was hired.

“When you are doing backgrounds on people and you call for references and try to find out information, there are a lot employers won’t tell you and can’t tell you, so that’s where we were in this situation, but Officer Dowd interviewed very well,” says Lewis.

This controversial traffic stop took place less than a month after Dowd started working for CPD on July 24th.

Sources tell us more than 90 videos are being pulled and reviewed by city administrators.