The funniest video of a drunk driver during book-in at Plano Police Department was a guy in his late teens or early 20s who fell to the floor hitting himself, begging for mercy, and screaming police brutality.
In the early 1980s, prior to the introduction of VHS or Betamax cassette tape recording, Plano PD had an old reel to reel video recorder set up in the book-in room. A camera was mounted in a corner at ceiling level and a separate microphone hung down from the ceiling in the very middle of the room. There was a red “X” on the floor in the middle of the room directly below the microphone, so that the device hung only a foot or so above a subject’s head. Upon entering the room, the subject was told to stand on the “X” and face the officer, who was seated at a counter in the diagonally opposite corner from the camera filling out the paperwork. That left the subject’s back turned toward the camera.
Officer Rick Smith arrested a DUI late one night and turned on the camera as they arrived at book-in. Rick asked the guy to take everything out of his pockets and place it on the counter, which the guy obediently did. Rick then told him to stand on the “X” and watch as he inventoried the guy’s belongings.
Rick was seated at the counter sideways to the guy so he could keep an eye on him as he did the paperwork. As Rick was inventorying the guy’s things, the guy began looking around. He saw the microphone hanging just above his head but he had not turned around to notice the camera high in the corner behind him. He stared at the microphone for a few seconds and an idea popped into his alcohol-fogged brain. With that, he slapped himself hard on the thigh with a loud whack and screamed, “Why did you hit me officer?” as he fell to the floor. He continued slapping his thigh, crying “Police brutality!” and “Please stop hitting me!” and “Why are you beating me?” and other exclamations as he screamed out in mock pain and whimpering.
Meanwhile, Rick sat calmly at the counter filling out his paperwork as if nothing at all was happening on the floor behind him. Other than turning to glance occasionally at the spectacle going on just a few feet to his side, Rick completely ignored the drunk’s antics.
Needless to say, that DUI case never went to trial. And if the guy thought he could sue the department for police brutality, he was sadly mistaken. I doubt that old tape reel still exists after 40 years, but it was a hit at the time, making the rounds of briefings for the instruction of the other officers on how to conduct a proper book-in of a drunk driver.