A Denver police officer accidentally flagged a work truck as stolen, leading to the brief detention of two men who were arrested in Larimer County.
DENVER — Police body cameras and dashboard videos capture tense moments when officers and police pointed their guns at two electricians initially believed to be driving a stolen vehicle, but documents reveal a paperwork error led to the ordeal.
9NEWS Investigates learned of the incident in June after the Denver Police Department released disciplinary documents. The felony arrest occurred in April 2023.
Video obtained by 9NEWS shows Larimer and Boulder County deputies stopping a white pickup truck after hitting it with a GPS tracking dart.
Inside the van were Jason Pettison and Ben Drysdale, who were yelled at by officers as they were pointed at with guns and ordered to get out with their hands up.
“There’s really a lot of confusion. I have no idea what’s going on,” Pettison said during an interview with 9NEWS. “It’s a bit of a surreal experience.”
“I mean, it was pretty, pretty scary. I honestly had no idea what was going on,” Ben Drysdale said of the experience.
Officers and police handcuffed Pettison and Drysdale and placed them in the back of police vehicles. The video shows the two men looking bewildered as an officer began to explain that his work truck was marked as a stolen vehicle by the Denver Police Department.
Records show Pettison reported to Denver Police that items had been stolen from his work truck a month before the felony arrest, however, the police report shows the officer marked the entire truck as stolen.
License plate readers captured images of the truck as it traveled through Larimer County, alerting deputies and police to stop the vehicle.
Disciplinary documents show Denver Police Corporal Christopher Johnson was suspended for two days without pay for his error in taking Pattison’s report.
“Either I misinterpreted, or we had a miscommunication and I didn’t ask the appropriate questions,” Cpl. Johnson says in disciplinary documents.
“I wasn’t mad at the cop in any way, but they’re just doing their job. That’s what you see on the screen. So it’s nothing against them,” Drysdale told 9NEWS.
Pattison said he hoped the Denver Police Department would provide remedial training to the officer who made the paperwork error.
A statement from the Denver Police Department indicates that follow-up training has been established due to the incident:
“In addition to the suspension, Officer Johnson’s supervisor conducted an incident review/debriefing both after the incident was reported and after the disciplinary process. Additionally, the DPD Professional Development Unit put together a training module specific to the officer’s transgression, which included additional training and verification of understanding. The supervisor documents the completion of the training module and maintains it in the officer’s personnel file. Assigning follow-up training is common practice in sustained AI cases, ensuring officers understand proper procedures and reinforcing policy.”
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