'Not how you handle children': Sheriff under fire after 11 year-old girl put in handcuffs

16 January

One county sheriff in upstate New York is now battling criticism from his community after defending deputies who handcuffed an 11 year-old girl after mistaking her for a suspect.

NBC News reported that Onondaga County Sheriff Tobias Shelley said it was "reasonable" when deputies briefly cuffed a young girl for seven minutes on Monday and questioned her about a car theft in the area. In a video of the incident obtained by local news outlet WSTM, deputies can be heard telling the girl that someone wearing "the exact same thing you’re wearing just stole a car," as both the suspect and the girl were wearing a puffy pink jacket and camouflage pants. But the suspect and the girl are also Black.

When the kids told the officers "we can't drive," one officer pushed back, saying: "What do you mean? Most kids can't drive and they're still out here stealing cars."

Deputies didn't notify the girl's parents that she had been detained, and Shelley said that he would change department policy to make sure officers will "notify a parent or guardian of any juvenile who is detained for criminal investigative purposes, no matter how brief the encounter is." He defended officers' behavior as "reasonable" and said their actions were "lawful, within policy and common practice in law enforcement." But the New York Civil Liberties Union said it was "extremely disturbed by the aggressive treatment of an 11-year-old Black child at the hands of Syracuse Sheriff’s deputies, and their failure to notify the child’s parents."

"This mistreatment raises serious concerns about implicit racial bias, which too often leads law enforcement officers to perceive children of color as a threat. It also raises questions about appropriate training and protocols in the Sheriff’s office,” the group stated. “The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office must engage the community in dialogue and make further changes with community input.”

The girl's mother, who has not been publicly named, told WSTM that the video of her daughter being handcuffed was difficult to watch.

"Even if it wasn’t my child, I wouldn’t be able to finish watching the video because that’s not how you handle children," she said.

Watch WSTM's video below, or by clicking this link.

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