Lawrence Dixon, a long-time Warner Robins, Georgia resident and Uber driver, went viral last week for posting an in-car dashcam video of an officer wrongfully citing him. Dixon was driving with his son in the car when an officer pulled him over and wrote him a $100 ticket for distracted driving.
Dixon tried to argue his case, pointing out to the officer that his phone was on a holder, firmly in place on the dashboard. The officer defended his ticket, saying he saw him holding the phone, which is why he pulled him over.
“I just thought to myself, like, ‘Hey, I’m under compliance. I have my license, I have my insurance,’” Dixon told WMGT. “As long as I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I don’t feel like I should be pulled over.”
At first, Dixon assumed the officer meant to pull over a different driver.
“I figured they must have been trying to stop someone else other than me. We were at a red light, and we were the first to go. I knew we weren’t speeding, I knew I didn’t commit any crimes, so it was unbelievable,” he said.
Obviously frustrated, Dixon shared his interior-facing camera footage on his Facebook, which caught users’ attention so quickly that the Georgia Department of Public Safety called Dixon the next morning.
The agency personally apologized and assured him that the ticket posted to his license would be dismissed. A statement read the stop was “an outside agency with independent arrest powers,” and was in contact with the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
Viewers said the dash camera saved his bacon
Viewers of the outlet’s YouTube video wrote the agency would never have dismissed the tickets if he didn’t have video evidence.
“If there was no dashcam evidence, they would have never dismissed the ticket,” wrote a viewer.
Another said it’s a shame more people don’t have interior-facing cameras.
“Imagine how many people get ticketed that don’t have a camera,” they wrote.
Someone else said the incident inspired them to buy their own camera.
“I’m going to get a dashcam. I’m so glad this fellow had one,” they said. “He was able to protect himself because of it.”
