Omaha Police Department Offical Statement From Bud Crawford Citation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have a lot of news to break down, so
I'm just going to get to this. A news release
which was released in the last hour or so from
the Omaha Police Department outlines the investigation of the traffic stop,
which some people just like this is not a big deal. Unfortunately,

(00:21):
it is a big deal because of who's involved, Terrence
Bud Crawford, who's the most famous Omaha resident that we have.
I would say Bud Crawford is more well known outside
of Omaha walls as a person from Omaha than Warren
Buffett at this point. It's not to say Warren Buffet
still isn't very important for Omaha. He certainly is, but
they're not going to be having the same type of

(00:43):
like giant parades and birthday celebrations around town like they
did over Saturday for Bud Crawford. Now, the traffic stop
occurred over very late Saturday night into Sunday morning. It
was technically Sunday morning over this past weekend, and there
are a lot of questions about the way things were handled,
were things handled properly, and what exactly did happen. Well,

(01:04):
now the public knows, So I'm going to read this
verbatim from the Omaha Police Department, and then we'll learn
about it together, and then we can make our own
determinations as to what can happen moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Ahem.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
The Omaha Police Department has made significant progress in the
internal affairs investigation regarding the traffic stop involving Terrence Bud
Crawford on Sunday, September twenty eighth, twenty twenty five. The
officers involved have provided statements, but police have not been
able to interview the four occupants of the car yet.
Three of the four occupants have been offered opportunities to

(01:39):
interview in person or by phone. The fourth occupant has
not been identified. All available camera footage has been reviewed,
which has assisted the Internal Affairs Unit in conducting the
investigation and compiling the below timeline of events. The investigation
remains ongoing as mister Crawford specifically has not yet been
interviewed due to travel. He has been offered the option

(02:01):
to participate in an interview by phone. In accordance with
past practice and legal considerations, video related to this incident
will not be released. The video is investigatory in nature
may be required for court proceedings. The Omaha Police Department
also seeks to respect mister Crawford's privacy during this process.

(02:21):
The two officers involved in this incident are Officer Mason
Gregorich and Officer James Valencia. Officer Gregorich has been with
the department for nearly six years. Officer Valencia has been
with the department for two years. A timeline from the
investigative video analysis one seven am a twenty twenty five

(02:46):
Lucid Sapphire is seen exiting the Steelhouse Omaha parking garage
onto North twelfth Street, heading north, accelerating past officers posted
at North Twelfth and Davenport Streets to monitor the area
as the bars close. Officers involved were in a marked
Omaha Police black and white cruiser, along with other marked

(03:07):
cruisers in the area. Now keep that in mind, this
is not unusual for police to be having a heavy
presence in the downtown area. It is also not unusual
for people who uh you know, might be driving recklessly
to be leaving bars. This is all done intentionally by
the police officers before people decide to jump on that
highway that's right there, or any street, but especially the

(03:30):
highway one twenty seven forty seven am. So I'm gonna
there's a lot of this in here where they very
specifically have the seconds of the minute. That's how I'm
going to read it. One twenty seven forty seven is
twenty seven minutes past one o'clock. Forty seven seconds into
that minute, one twenty seven forty seven, Officer Gregorich pulls
onto Twelfth Street to get behind the Lucid Sapphire to

(03:51):
initiate a traffic stop one twenty eighth nine. About twenty
seconds later, the officers stopped the car at North twelfth
and Cast Streets with emergency lights activated. Keep in mind,
this is very much like right after they have left
the Steelhouse. This is right after they have left because
again they had that big birthday party and they were

(04:12):
hanging out. I'm sure they were partying. A lot of
people probably had left at that point. They finally get
into their car and they're leaving one nine am. I
mentioned the officer stop. Within twenty seconds of that, Officer
Valencia approaches on the passenger side of the vehicle and
Officer Gregor Rich approaches the driver side of the vehicle.

(04:35):
At one twenty eight thirty four, Officer Valencia makes contact
with the front passenger while Officer gregorrich continues to approach.
Officer Gregor rich contacts the driver, so that basically means
that they have engaged windows down, they're talking to the
people in the car. The driver immediately told Officer gregorich

(04:55):
this mother bleeper fest, you know, probably as like, have
you ever been in a car like this?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Where? And by the way that entire back and forth.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Officer Gregor Richard responds saying, I understand that, but that
is so unsafe, and the driver says, my bad. Now,
the driver, as far as we know, is Bud Crawford,
but we will, you know, we'll get to more details here.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
The interesting thing is.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
If you've ever been behind the wheel of a car,
you've not been behind regularly, or if you're just kind
of like testing the waters with the vehicle, which I
think all of us red blooded American males probably have done.
I have been in a situation where you barely touch

(05:53):
the gas pedal and all of a sudden, you're like
you're jerked forward right like it really has like some
giddy up, some really good accelerator, and sometimes you just
want to see what it does to, you know, go
from zero to thirty five. If you're going to stay
on the speed limit as fast as you can right now.
I'm not been pulled over for that, but I'd be

(06:13):
lying to you if I told you that if I
wasn't on a highway trying to see how quickly I
could get to sixty five miles an hour.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Fair, all right.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Just a few seconds after UH one fifty, Officer Gregor
Rich requests a driver licensed registration and insurance from the driver.
The driver responds, I ain't got and begins searching his
pockets and center console, so essentially like I ain't gonna
Keep in mind, we were told pretty quickly, this is

(06:42):
a new car. This was a car that doesn't even
have plates on it yet because it is brand new.
After that, a couple secs later, Officer Gregorrich takes out
a flashlight in his right hands shines the light inside
the car. Two seconds later, Officer Gregorrich switches the flashlight
to his left hand when the front seat passenger is
heard via body Warren camera stating he has a firearm
on his hip. Two Officer Valencia out of the passenger

(07:05):
side window. The driver in this situation, and this is
again a situation where we are under the impression Bud
Crawford's the driver. The driver also states and the same thing,
I got my firearm, but continues facing Officer Valencia on
the passenger side while looking around the center console. In

(07:26):
that exact moment, Officer Gregorich reacts as he looks inside
the car and draws his service weapon. Officer Gregorich observed
a handgun on the floorboard, partially covered by the floor
mat at mister Crawford's feet. Mister Crawford was leaning and
reaching toward the center console an armress storage area. In
this exact moment, the handgun is observed one second after

(07:46):
mister Crawford announced in the direction of Officer Valencia that
he had his firearm, and two seconds after front seat
passenger had informed Officer Valencia that he was armed out
of the passenger window. Officer Gregorich stated during his interview
that he did not hear mister Crawford or the front
seat passenger announced they had firearms as he was using
his flashlight to illuminate the inside of the car while

(08:08):
positioned outside the driver's side door. His body worn camera
footage from the night of the incident corroborates this statement,
so both of them are facing the passenger side talking
to the officer on the passenger side. Driver side officer
does not hear anything about we have firearms, but seize

(08:28):
one without actually being told that there is one, and
then reacts accordingly by pulling his service weapon. He further stated,
in his training and experience as an officer with persons
and concealed weapons, firearms are not normally on the floor
of a vehicle and instead holstered or in the center
console or another secured area. Officer Gregorich stated this was

(08:51):
a red flag for him, so he drew his service
weapon to safely remove all parties away from the firearm
and a perceived possible threat and to invest gate further
one twenty eight fifty seven. This is happening within like
seconds like this is less than thirty seconds of them
approaching the vehicle, Officer Gregorich points his firearm at the

(09:14):
driver and repeatedly tells him to exit the car, which again,
in this moment, if that firearm was not seen on
the floorboard of the vehicle, this would not have happened.
If he would have heard that they had told them
we have firearms, that would not have happened. And you
could imagine the shock of somebody who had just told
one officer that we have firearms to all of a

(09:36):
sudden look the other direction, and now, all of a sudden,
there's a police officer pointing a gun at you, saying
get out of the car. Less than a minute later,
the driver exits the vehicle is handcuffed outside of the
car by Officer Valencia. A few seconds later, one ninety seven,
Officer gregor Rich reports a firearm on the car floorboard
via his radio. Seven seconds after that, the driver is

(09:59):
as car behind the car and in front of the
police cruiser by Officer Valencia. About twenty seconds later, all
occupants are secured outside the car. Officer Gregor Rich requests
identification from the driver again, the driver refuses to speak
with the officer and requests a supervisor to respond to
the scene. Forty seconds after that one thirty two fifty two,

(10:22):
this is you know. A few minutes after all this
takes place, the front seat passenger, mister Crawford's chief of
security and Officer Gregor Rich discussed recognizing mister Crawford. At
this point, Officer Gregorich realizes the driver of the car
he stopped was Terence Crawford. He didn't know it was
him until after he has him handcuffed and against like
kind of leaning against the police cruiser as they're investigating

(10:44):
the vehicle. Officer Gregoritch's direct contact with mister Crawford lasted
only one minute and fourteen seconds of the total timeline
from the car, from the time the car was stopped
to mister Crawford being handcuffed and being moved to the
rear of the car. Mister Crawford did not provide any
means of identification, verbal or physical. Most of this time,
mister Crawford was turned away from Officer Gregor Rich attempting

(11:06):
to retrieve documentation. So I got some more here. We're
gonna get to it. It is interesting and I think
it is important to understanding what exactly happened, and we
need to talk about it because this is how we
avoid this. The conversation of was this a racial profiling situation?
I would you know based on this information that is
not what I anticipate. But at the same time, how

(11:27):
can we potentially do better? Because we were talking about
the traffic stop and of Bud Crawford, he had basically
come out of the garage of the Steelhouse after his
birthday party and decided to I mean, I don't know

(11:53):
where he was going. He was probably headed towards the
highway or something, and a police officer who's out there
basically watching for people who are drinking and driving recklessly
to try to take, you know, make sure that the
roads are safe. And he was driving a twenty twenty
five Lucid Sapphire. A twenty twenty five Lucid Sapphire, according

(12:15):
to Dave, who sent me an email, the twenty twenty
four model is a high performance trim of the Lucid
Air Luxury electric sedan. It features a one two hundred
and thirty four horse power triple motor power train, carbon
ceramic breaks in a track tuned suspension and offers extremes
acceleration with a zero to sixty mile per hour time

(12:38):
of one point eight nine seconds one point eight nine seconds.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
So it is fast, like you said, I don't.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Know if I were to say it exactly like that,
And of course it's very luxurious on the inside too.
But Crawford's making a lot of money and he wanted
to drive his Sapphire. I just want to think about
what I would do in a car this fast and powerful.
This is not to say that you should drive recklessly,

(13:08):
but the only reason you have this car in a
lot of ways is to see how fast it can go.
And it's to see how fast you can get up
to sixty five miles an hour. And I mean the
process of buying a new car myself. I hate to
tell you this, but while I was test driving the vehicle,

(13:29):
I got into the lane that the entrance lane to
get onto the highway, and that's what I did. I just,
you know, just like see how fast it can go.
It certainly wasn't one point eight nine seconds, but yeah,
I mean you kind of like to like to know
what that feels like. Anyway, we are now to the
point of now after This is the end of the

(13:53):
video essentially because there was no more talking between the
officers and Bud Crawford or any of the other people.
Really that was important. It was about waiting for supervisors
to come and resolve the issue, which they did. He
was cited for reckless driving and that was it and
everybody went home. But I'm sure if you're Bud Crawford
and you're his head of security and the other people

(14:15):
that were in this car, and all of a sudden
you see an officer just kind of pointing a gun
at you. I can understand how that could be a
very harrowing experience when you thought you were doing everything
you were supposed to do. Now, reason for traffic stop
here is what the Omaha Police Apartment release continued to
say here as they released this this afternoon, the reason

(14:36):
for traffic stop. There has been considerable conversation about the
probable cause surrounding the traffic stop and why it was conducted.
The Lucid Sapphire was being driven at a high rate
of speed, well in excess of the post to twenty
five mile per hour limit, straddling the lane divider between
the northbound lanes, while multiple pedestrians were walking on the
sidewalks and crossing the street in a popular entertainment district

(14:58):
after multiple large events throughout the day. Mister Crawford's car
did not have license plates to mention it was a
new car. Additional note, there is a rumor that mister
Crawford and his chief of security were under the influence
of alcohol at the time of the traffic stop. That
is not accurate. Both men and the other two occupants
were calm and followed the officer's directions to exit the

(15:20):
car and assisted in the making the situation safe for
all involved. Summation officers observed a car traveling at a
high rate of speed in a densely populated entertainment district
with heavy pedestrian traffic. They conducted a traffic stop with
that car. There was no way the officers could have
known the driver was mister Crawford, as it was dark
in the car had no license plates. Mister Crawford admitted

(15:42):
on camera the car was fast and implied it got
away from him. The officer observed a firearm in an
unusual place while being transported by vehicle and did not
hear the announcement of firearms inside the car by the occupants.
The occupants were ordered out of the car by officers
at gunpoint. Mister Crawford and other occupants comply with all
commands by the officers assisting with making the situation safe.

(16:04):
The officer who made the contact with the driver did
not know who the driver was until mister Crawford was
removed from the car, and the officer later was able
to speak to the passengers and again see mister Crawford,
it has been determined that the officers acted within departmental policy. However,
the department accepts accountability and will implement measures to de
escalate this situation in the future. Accountability actions and this

(16:28):
is what you want to see. This is what the
Police Department is going to do differently moving forward based
on what happened here. Number one, the Omaha Police Department
is evaluating a potential policy update concerning traffic stops, specifically
regarding the implications of LB seventy seven. The proposed modification
involves officers inquiring about the presence of a firearm in

(16:50):
the vehicle, in addition to requesting the driver's license, registration
and proof of insurance as permitted by LB seventy seven.
Number two. Due to an increase traffic stops involving firearms
affected by LB seventy seven, OPD will implement scenario based training.
This training aims to equip officers with various options for

(17:10):
effectively managing the dynamics of LB seventy seven.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Number three.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
OPD will work with the Mayor's Office on a comprehensive
plan to examine the nature of traffic stops involving firearms
report findings and redouble concrete action steps on building community relations.
And that's the end of this release. Now here's the uh,

(17:36):
here's my understanding, and you know what can fix a
lot of this, and I'm glad that we have such
a forward thinking police department on this. The biggest thing
is that maybe it's good to just ask if there
our firearms in the car. So if the officer Gregor
rich on the driver's side of the vehicle as he's

(17:59):
approaching the car asking for license, registration insurance to ask
the question, are there any firearms in the vehicle? And
when that happens, all of a sudden, now you have
the ability to articulate from the inside of the vehicle
directly to the officer that is asking the question, yes,

(18:23):
there are firearms in the vehicle. Now this happens, so
bang bang, bang as far as the timeline goes, and
they have the time on the cameras so they can
line this whole thing up as the passenger side. And
this is the other thing. I don't think it's a
bad idea to have a a police officer on both
sides of the vehicle. I think that's really good policy.

(18:43):
But when you have both of them talking to different
people in the vehicle at the exact same time. It
does create a little bit of the opportunity for maybe
some miscommunication. For instance, in this scenario, think about being
a driver and a police officer, Sir pulls you over.
It's probably happened to everybody at least once, and the

(19:04):
officer says, can I have your license, registration, insurance information,
whatever the whatever. That officer is going to say, You listen,
and ninety nine percent of the time you're going to
have to turn away from the officer and you're gonna
have to open the center console, You're gonna have to

(19:26):
open the glove box and the passenger side to see
if you can find Because I've been in situations when
I was much younger that I couldn't find what they
were asking me for.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
It bothered me and whatever. So it ends up happening.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Right, not only are you paying attention and you're looking
through all this stuff, but it's making noise. The car
is still running. I don't know how loud of you know,
Elucid Sapphire is, but I'm guessing that's going to have,
you know, at least a quiet noise. I think it's
an electric car, so it's going to have at least
a noise. You have your passenger talking to the police

(20:04):
officer out the other window, and your head is down,
not paying attention or looking the direction where your voice
as you're saying this stuff is going to go out
one way, but the officer behind you is not going
to hear anything that you're saying. Like, stand outside the
driver's side door of any vehicle, have the driver look

(20:24):
away from you and even have his or her head down,
Have them talk and see if you can understand what
they're saying, especially with multiple other people speaking, and then
they're being even just the slightest amount of noise from
the vehicle on the outside, or the slightest amount of
ambient noise downtown that was probably still going on at
one thirty in the morning. Put all that together, it
was a cocktail of that officer just not going to

(20:47):
be able to hear what was being sat in the
vehicle at that time, and it just was bad luck
in a way that the officer noticed what he believed
to be a firearm on the floor of the car.
And as soon as you see that, and you did
not know there were firearms in the vehicle, you don't
know in that situation that was bang bang bang. They
had just within three seconds before that had told the

(21:08):
other officer out the other window that they had firearms.
That kind of confusion, right, Maybe there can be a
bit of correlation here as a choreography as to how
the questioning goes. When you approach each side of the car.
Maybe have one officer talking at a time. That way
everybody in the car can articulate to each officer what

(21:31):
the situation is. And if there had been five or
six seconds in between, maybe Officer Valencia on the passenger
side could have looked across the top of the car too,
or even through the window and told Officer Gregorich they
have firearms, and they have told us they have firearms,
and that would not have initiated the same type of

(21:51):
reaction that you saw from Officer gregorig So I think
just general communication that could be something that I'm sure
they're going to work on moving forward as well. Good
to have that type of transparency in our police department.