A policeman has been suspended from the job in Detroit after he allegedly used the phone of a woman that he was arresting to send himself some of her nude photos and videos.
Derond Martez Crawford was in court on Friday, March 6, as a defendant, accused of sending his own phone 11 private and explicit photos and videos he found on the female suspect’s device during a Tuesday, March 3, traffic stop.
She had given him permission to unlock her phone so he could locate her mother’s phone number and inform her of the arrest, according to court documents shared with Us Weekly.
Crawford, 34, was an officer with the Detroit Police Department for five years. He was released on a $100,000 bond.
Documents alleged Crawford and his partner conducted a traffic stop involving a woman who was driving a vehicle that — while registered to her — did not have insurance. During the stop, officers learned she also had a probation violation warrant and decided to take her to the Detroit Detention Center.
Crawford took the woman’s cellphone from the vehicle before she was transferred to the jail.
Authorities said her boyfriend took possession of her vehicle.
Crawford went through the woman’s phone and sent himself text messages with the self-shot adult content attached.
After the woman was released, she told prosecutors she reviewed her phone and found Crawford neglected to delete the messages he’d sent himself.
She did not recognize the number, but determined it was likely the arresting officer.
She filed a complaint with the Detroit Police, and Crawford allegedly took a trip to the woman’s home on Wednesday, March 4, while off duty but still wearing his police uniform and driving a police vehicle. She did not go to her door, police said.
Crawford allegedly told her neighbors she had an active warrant and asked if they knew where she could be — and who she lived with.
Crawford was arrested and charged with using a computer to commit a crime and interfering with electronic communications.
He has been ordered to have no contact with the victim or any of the witnesses in his case.
Crawford is under house arrest and was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor.
In a statement to Us, the Detroit Police department confirmed “this matter is being actively investigated.”
Added the statement: “The involved officer was arrested and conveyed to the Detroit Detention Center for processing. The alleged actions are concerning and do not represent the overwhelming majority of Detroit Police officers who maintain a high level of conduct and professionalism that they have sworn to uphold. The officer has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. At the conclusion of the investigation, the findings will be submitted to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for review.”
Crawford did not have an “articulable reason” to look in the woman’s phone for anything other than the mother’s phone number, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. “And the steps he took after that intrusion were completely inappropriate,” she said.
With additional reporting by Julia Marnin
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