Body camera video from Feb. 11 shows a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputy walking up to the driver, Kathleen Thompson, saying he saw her manipulating her phone with her right hand. Thompson then raised her right arm and revealed she was missing her right hand.
“So do you just want to call this a day?” Thompson said.
“I don’t want to call it a day,” the deputy said. “You had a hand up manipulating your phone.”
Photo courtesy of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office
“You just said my right hand,” Thompson said.
“Well I thought I saw your right hand,” the deputy said. “You had a hand up.”
The deputy then asked if she was holding the phone at all, and Thompson said she was not.
“Hand to God, you did not have your phone in your hand?” the deputy said.
“Hand to God,” Thompson said, raising her right arm.
The deputy then prompts her to raise her other hand, before asking for her license and registration.
The deputy issued Thompson a citation, accusing her of violating Florida’s wireless communications while driving law.
A court hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, but the citation was dropped at the request of the deputy who issued it, according to court records.
The video drew attention after Thompson posted a video on TikTok, in which she asked viewers their opinion on the incident and disputed the deputy’s claims.
“In this particular case, the deputy initiated a traffic stop based upon his visual observation at the time of the incident,” the sheriff’s office said. “After additional review of the Florida State Statutes involved and based upon the totality of the circumstances, specifically the lack of clarity on how violations are labeled in our citation software, the decision was ultimately made to dismiss based upon the difference in wording between Florida State Statute 316.305 and 316.306.”
The sheriff’s office said its deputies are “required to make decisions based on observations made in real time.”
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