An Uber passenger was involved in a heated incident when an agitated police officer stopped his driver and took him away in handcuffs.
Video footage shows the driver’s view from the back seat after being picked up at Miami International Airport on Saturday.
The clip begins after the car has already stopped and the officer is heard asking the Uber driver, who was wearing a sweatband over his curly black hair, for his license, registration and insurance documents.
According to Miami-Dade Police, the Uber was blocking traffic while dropping off a passenger at an unauthorized location at Miami International Airport. VSN reported.
The Uber driver seemed surprised as he was rushed through the information from different locations in his vehicle, but when he asked for more time to gather the documents, the police officer seemed to see this as a delaying tactic.
Pictured: The Uber driver at Miami airport who would eventually be arrested by a police officer.
The driver looked nervously at his passenger (whom he had probably only known for two minutes) and asked him to record what was happening.
The passenger quietly stated that he was already rolling, apparently not wanting to attract attention.
Shortly after this, the policeman made his first threat to the driver by demanding his insurance details.
“Are you going to give it to me?” the officer asked. “Or are you going to get out of the car?”
After the driver asked the officer what documents he wanted and if he could take them, he began rummaging through his glove compartment.
He appeared to hand over his license before telling the officer: “It’s Saturday, we’re both working. I’m just dropping someone off.”
The officer interrupts him because he doesn’t want him to draw any parallels between his two jobs.
“We are not doing the same thing, sir. I am providing security and you are blocking the road,” the officer said.
The two continued to have a heated exchange, culminating in the officer proclaiming that he is older and has more life experience.
The passenger captures the moment when the police officer takes away the driver, who is tied by the wrists with handcuffs.
‘I’m older. I have more experience. You’re younger and I’d like you to listen more than you talk. That’s why God gave you two ears and one mouth. You listen more than you talk.’
‘Give me your license plate and your insurance. I’m not here to put up with your nonsense.’
The driver called the police officer out for being “aggressive” and said, “There’s a way to do it.”
“I apologize if you feel that way, but you have to do what you’re told,” the police officer replies.
When the driver does not immediately hand over the documents and instead lectures him about treating him kindly and like a human being, the officer threatens to throw him out of the car once again.
“This is not normal. This is not normal,” the driver repeats in disbelief, looking back at the passenger camera.
The tension increased until the officer lost his cool and resorted to snatching all the papers that were on the driver’s lap.
“Give me the license plate and give me the damn insurance and stop playing with me,” the policeman said as he snatched the license plate out of the driver’s hand.
He also told the driver that if he “resists,” “it will be on the news.”
The driver was eventually able to pull up his insurance card on his phone and said it was a screenshot.
That was the wrong thing to say.
“You have to have physical insurance,” the police officer told him.
Under Florida state law, this is incorrect.
Uber driver is pulled out of car by police after failing to present physical copy of insurance card.
The police officer throws the driver against the window of his own car before putting him in handcuffs.
Here, the passenger leans forward to record the officer handcuffing his Uber driver.
Florida statutes 2023 provide that proof of motor vehicle insurance…It must be submitted in a uniform format, in paper or electronic form..’
In fact, Florida is one of 49 states (and Washington DC) that allow its residents to view their car insurance through their phone.
New Mexico is the only state where an electronic insurance card is not explicitly accepted.
Police department officials confirmed that contrary to what the officer said, an electronic insurance card is valid during a traffic stop.
When the driver finally confirmed that he did not have a paper copy of his insurance, the misunderstanding between the two continued.
The officer was heard fiddling with the handcuffs and began to pull the driver out of the car. The driver reminded him that his car was still running.
Once the vehicle was parked, the officer wasted no time in pulling him out of his seat and slamming him through the car window.
He then leaned him over the driver’s door, which was still open, and ordered him to put his hands behind his back.
Vehicles drive through the departures area of Miami International Airport on July 3, 2024.
The passenger leaned closer and recorded the officer tightening the handcuffs on the driver’s wrists, before pulling him back into the police car.
They drove him back to the patrol car and put him inside.
Investigators told WSVN the Uber driver failed to obey orders and was detained, but not arrested.
The three-minute video of the arrest garnered more than 14,000 likes on TikTok and nearly 4,500 comments as of Monday morning.
Many viewers thought the officer appeared to be in a power position, while others said he should be fired for his conduct.
Viewers of the TikTok video took to the comments to react to the officer’s conduct during the encounter with the Uber driver.
“That was out of control. That police officer got out of control and he should suffer the consequences. I’m sure this is not the first time he has behaved like this,” one person wrote.
Others mentioned the officer’s misunderstanding of the law governing electronic insurance cards, with one person saying he has been driving for ten years and has never had a problem displaying insurance on his phone.
A popular Instagram account that shares Miami-Dade content reposted this videowhere it got almost as much engagement as on TikTok.
Team South Florida, a nonprofit that supports families of fallen officers, commented on the video post on Instagram.
“We cannot let this opportunity pass us by. To our law enforcement family, accept this situation, learn from it and do better,” the organization wrote.
“We are the first to defend law enforcement when they are right. However, we cannot and should not ignore them when they are wrong.
“The only excuse we can come up with is that we had a bad day, we made a bad decision in the past, or we have an ego or attitude problem. None of those excuses are valid.”
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Miami-Dade Police Department for comment.