A Houston police officer, in full uniform, was caught on video at a Drake concert apparently taking photos of a woman’s backside as she stood in front of him, unaware of what was going on behind her.
Twitter user @HeyChalice caught the moment on video and uploaded it to Twitter Tuesday night during Drake & Migos’ Houston tour stop. The concert was held at the Toyota Center.
Minutes later, she recorded a second video clip of the uniformed officer, whose sleeve insignia indicates he holds the rank of sergeant according to the Houston Chronicle, in which she speculates that he was then sending the photo he took “to his homie cops.”
The initial video went viral almost instantly. As of Thursday morning, it had been retweeted nearly 22,000 times.
The Houston Police Department responded to the incident with a statement in two tweets Wednesday evening.
The department noted that it had not received any formal complaints stemming from the incident before declaring that “the actions depicted on the video are not consistent with the expectations we have for our personnel,” and ensuring that “corrective action” will be taken.
The twitter user who uploaded the videos did not wish to be identified, and told KTRK, who referred to her only by the first name Jessica, that she laughed at the incident at first, “like wow, I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
But she also said on Twitter that, later in the show, she also followed up with the woman, pulling her aside in one of the restrooms in the venue to tell her what the cop behind her was doing.
“She laughed & asked me to text her videos, so if it makes y’all feel any better she doesn’t feel violated,” she tweeted.
Whether or not the woman in the video felt violated, though, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told KPRC that sneaking butt photos is not what cops should be doing at concerts.
“We get paid to be at these events to make sure that things are safe, no threats and keep the peace. Obviously that is not the conduct we are looking for and whether he is being paid by the tax payer or the venue that is not what he is there for,” Acevedo told the station. “There will be an internal investigation and we will see what he has to about what he was doing and why he was doing it. We want our officers alert. We want them focusing on the mission and we want them focusing on safety.”