Santa Fe College Officials and Faculty Discuss Officer C. Davis’ Comments on Body Camera Footage
On November 7, Santa Fe (SF) College Police Department (SFPD) Officer Christopher Davis was caught on body camera footage making fun of students and making a suicide joke while investigating a tip about student Jordan Tucker, 21, having firearms in his bag. Tucker was arrested and released on a $2,500 bond after spending a few hours in jail.
Jack Walden
On November 18, SF College Assistant President Jay Anderson sent an email to SF faculty and said the college “is aware of remarks made by a college employee that were captured on a Santa Fe College Police Officer body camera.”
Anderson sent the statement to GnvInfo, acknowledging it was in response to the GnvInfo article that exposed Davis' behavior. However, the statement Anderson sent to SF faculty did not include the article link. Anderson did not make it clear that the employee caught making “remarks” on body camera footage was a police officer.
On November 29, SF College held a college senate meeting where Anderson and Gainesville City Commissioner/SF College Police Chief Ed Book spoke about the gun possession incident and Davis’ comments.
Anderson said SF College officials had an executive leadership team meeting that primarily focused on the body camera footage.
Book said, “Two officers were waiting in the stairwell to contact the subject they were later going to arrest for a gun. One of those officers was making completely inappropriate remarks.”
A college employee said that Anderson’s email “caused a lot more problems than what it was attempting to solve.” The employee said that several of his colleagues all thought they were the employee being referenced in the email. He said the only reason employees received clarification was because another employee saw the GnvInfo article and was able to provide context.
Book acknowledged the email Anderson sent was vague and said it was designed to be “deliberately vague.”
Book said, “We released that body-worn camera lock, stock, and barrel; one reporter who I spoke to and got interviewed [with] released it.”
Book conducted an interview with GnvInfo before the body cam footage was released, and he said that several college officials, including himself, were notified about the gun possession tip immediately after it was submitted through the See Something Say Something program.
It appears that higher-level SF College officials were allowed to know about the gun possession tip before Tucker's arrest, but standard-level employees didn’t have access to that information.
Book said, “It’s not a capability where you send everybody an SF Alert. I will always defer in the interest of caution and safety to provide a warning. If we need to send that out, we’re gonna do that…. That’s not this…. We stopped him. He never gets to the classroom, and the classrooms [is] unaware.”
Book said they made contact with Tucker’s parents after his arrest and that Tucker has some additional firearms at his residence.
One of the college employees attending the meeting said that SFPD “intentionally permitted [Tucker] to return to campus in one of our buildings in order to arrest him knowing that he had a gun on campus.” The employee said, “You made contact at his house after; you could’ve visited the house before.”
Book said they couldn’t make contact prior because they only had Tucker’s name, and they had to arrest him on campus to press charges because it's legal to carry a gun almost everywhere in Florida with exceptions for campuses and governmental facilities.
One employee said he no longer feels comfortable calling the police because of Davis’ profiling and asked when was the last time he received Crisis and Behavioral Intervention training.
Book said Davis received crisis training from a different agency outside Alachua County some time ago.
GnvInfo received a recording of the November 29 SF College senate meeting after making a request to Anderson and paying $35. The footage appears to end abruptly after 39 minutes of recording.
Anderson said the $35 fee is in “accordance with college procedures” and is needed to “determine if there are any redactions that need to be made for FERPA privacy purposes.”
SF College redacted Tucker's name in the video even though its already been made public through his arrest report.
