Greene County released deputy body cam after rant

GREENE COUNTY, Ga. - On the surface, there was an accusation of a Greene County Sheriff Deputy harassing a woman parked at a gas station. The entire Christmas Eve night incident was recorded on the deputy's body cam video.

It happened at Flying J gas station when the Deputy went to check on a woman parked in her truck by the back of the complex.

"So that's her sitting in the back of the parking lot," said Greene County Sheriff Donnie Harrison as he pointed to the computer screen.

The sheriff said based on the entirety of the body cam video there seems to be no conflict or drama involved in the short interaction. He said the woman's son posted a scathing Facebook message to the Department based on her account.

"It was not what was reported to her son. The Deputy simply did his job and it was a brief and short encounter," said Sheriff Harrison.

The rant read in part, "Merry Christmas and blank you for worrying about my poor old momma feeding some stray cats and taking a little break."

It was a social media rant that prompted the release of the video on Facebook.

"We felt as though we should address the issue through social media at the time," said Sheriff Harrison.

The rant also made reference to the woman seemingly challenging the Deputy to go get a warrant and bring the dogs.

It spoke of bigger problems like kids getting raped and kidnapped and local robberies, concluding with "give me a f---ing break"

"He simply messaged us through Facebook and we addressed it through that it's a different age it's a different time," said Sheriff Harrison.

The Sheriff said it's been about a year since his department started using the Cloud-based body cam system because he says even people have different accounts of events, video in proper context doesn't lie.

"Due to all the police scrutiny that goes on nowadays. We'll address it if the Deputy does good and we'll address it if the Deputy makes mistake or does something he shouldn't be doing," said Sheriff Harrison.

The Sheriff said the man who sent the Facebook message rant has since apologized and even gave the department's Facebook page a five-star rating.