Lower Merion police ‘didn’t use sound tactics’ when they used a Taser on a driver after a traffic stop, chief says

A Lower Merion police officer should not have used a Taser against a woman who refused his order to get out of her car after a traffic stop earlier this month, department officials said.

The officer, whom police have not identified, “didn’t use sound tactics” when he reached for his Taser instead of using other methods to deescalate the situation when the woman grew upset after he pulled her over for tailgating, officials said. The incident elicited outcry from community members who alleged racial profiling and called for an independent investigation.

Police Superintendent Michael McGrath said the officer did not follow the department’s use-of-force policy and could face discipline. He will also be required to undergo fresh training, said McGrath, who addressed the township’s commissioners and community at a meeting Wednesday evening.

While he said an internal review had concluded that the officer’s actions were legal, they did not meet the township police department’s standards, McGrath told the crowd, adding that the officer could have deescalated the situation by waiting behind the cover of his car for backup and addressing the driver through his car’s speaker, rather than approaching her vehicle holding a gun.

Chaine Jordan, 36, of Plymouth Meeting, was driving her Volvo sedan on Conshohocken State Road in Bala Cynwyd on Jan. 8 when the officer attempted to pull her over for tailgating a pickup truck, McGrath said. Jordan, who police said was driving with a suspended license, initially resisted the officer’s attempt to pull her over, but after “a short pursuit” lasting 1.3 miles, pulled into a parking lot. There, police said, she refused orders to get out of the vehicle, roll down her tinted windows, or provide officers with her insurance paperwork and driver’s license.

Body-worn camera footage released by the department showed that Jordan continued to drive for 2½ minutes after the officer turned on his overhead lights, and at one point, she passed the truck she had been driving behind. She eventually pulled into the parking lot of a Wawa at the intersection of Conshohocken State and Rockhill Roads, saying she didn’t feel safe stopping on the shoulder of the road.

The officer then approached the sedan with his gun drawn, sparking a tense confrontation with Jordan. The officer ordered her to get out of the car, told her she could be arrested for obstruction of justice, and threatened to use a Taser against her. At one point, the officer is heard threatening to break the window.

Jordan was charged with fleeing an officer and resisting arrest, along with drug possession after officers found oxycodone inside her vehicle after she was taken into custody.

The officer’s decision to use a Taser sparked criticism and calls for police accountability. In a statement, the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus called the incident “disturbing” and demanded more accountability for police use of force, along with a continuing push for diversity training for police departments and legislative reform.

The legislators decried the officer’s treatment of Jordan, who is Black, and said, “This woman’s humanity and rights were disregarded. She was physically abused by these men and the system that has for years abused Black and brown folks across this commonwealth.”

The body camera footage, shown during Wednesday’s commission meeting, was met with grimaces and upset from about five dozen community members in attendance, with some in tears and others nodding in approval as the driver told the officer she didn’t feel safe.

During a lengthy and impassioned public comment, several members of the community called for the township to do more, and for an independent investigation into the incident.

“We’re post-George Floyd, and I think anybody in this community has to recognize what that means when anybody is in that type of situation, and the level of stress ... and her response,” said Brian Reese-Turner, president of the Main Line Branch of the NAACP, who was among those who called for a probe into what “led to this behavior happening.”

“There has always been a shaky relationship between the Black community and the police in this township,” Reese-Turner said. “It creates a level of fear with police, so whenever you’re driving as a Black person, and you see lights flashing behind you, you tense up, you get stressed.”

“Are you waiting for us to get killed?” another woman asked the commissioners. “Do you want somebody’s blood on your hands?”

“We have been here before and before and before and before, and that’s a problem,” said the Rev. Caroline C. Caveness, pastor of Bethel AME Church of Ardmore and a Lower Merion Township resident. “And it’s a problem because you don’t see me. We didn’t see the young lady.”

“We need outside investigative forces in the Lower Merion Police Department, from top to bottom, because something is wrong,” Caveness said. “Something is wrong, that this can be repeatedly happening, and we don’t see any change and we have a community that’s hurt.”

Lower Merion police officials noted that the Volvo’s windows were tinted and said the officer who stopped Jordan likely could not see who was inside the vehicle at the time of the traffic stop.

“The officers have every reason to be concerned,” Capt. Gene Pasternak said. “There’s an unknown risk here. You have the pursuit, you have the noncompliance of the occupants, you have the inability to see into the car. These are all concerning, these are red flags. I would be in fear standing next to the car for any prolonged period of time.

“But as I said, better tactics could’ve improved these circumstances,” he added.

“The lens that these situations should be looked at is through multiple viewpoints,” McGrath said Wednesday night, with attention to “the community perspective and expectations of our society.”

Jordan’s attorney, Nadeem Bezar, said he is conducting his own investigation of the incident and is considering filing a lawsuit.

He said Jordan initially didn’t know why she was being pulled over, and seeing the officer approach her car with a gun drawn caused “immediate panic.” Bezar said the tactics the officer used were excessive.

Bezar also questioned the charges filed against Jordan. He said her driver’s license was not suspended, and he said she has a prescription for the oxycodone found in her car. The officers found a single pill, he said, that Jordan typically carries in case her chronic back pain flares.

He also noted that the criminal charges were not filed until eight days after the traffic stop. Initially, he said, Jordan was released without even a traffic ticket.

“They went back, they regrouped, they spoke internally, and they came up with these charges,” said Bezar. He also faulted the officer for his aggressive conduct, as shown in the video released by the department, and said he should have taken steps to deescalate the situation.

» READ MORE: Lower Merion police tased a Black woman during a traffic stop, drawing controversy and calls for accountability

The officer did not properly sync his body camera to the system in his cruiser at the start of his shift, department officials said, so the footage of the incident is incomplete, missing around 2½ minutes of audio. But body camera footage from another responding officer showed the first officer screaming at Jordan to lower her window and get out of the vehicle.

Jordan refused, at one point saying she was scared. The officer replied that he “didn’t care.” He threatened to break her window if she tried to roll it up.

The officer then reached through the open window and opened the door of Jordan’s car. She continued to resist, saying she wouldn’t get out of the car until a supervisor arrived on the scene. The officer then used his Taser and forcibly pulled her out of the vehicle.

On the ground, it took three officers to handcuff Jordan and walk her to a nearby patrol vehicle.

McGrath said the department released the full video “not to be defensive or to cast a poor light on the driver, but to provide the public with full transparency.”

“We could’ve performed better and we should have,” he said.