State Police Release Dashcam Footage Of Interstate 676 Protest

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania State Police released dashboard camera footage of a police vehicle that was on Interstate 676 during protests, which led to protesters being hit with tear gas.

The video was released Tuesday after being recorded Monday, June 1 on a portion of I-676 near the Ben Franklin Parkway.

At about 5 p.m. that day, more than 100 protesters overtook the road and when police were unable to get the large crowd of people off the highway, tear gas was used in an attempt to disperse them.

Philadelphia Police said protesters surrounded a State Trooper, who was alone and seated in his car, and began rocking the vehicle.

However, the video released Tuesday contradicts statements made by police and Mayor Jim Kenney, who addressed the use of tear gas that night.

"Today's deployment of tear gas was a means to safely diffuse a volatile and dangerous situation, and restore order, when it became increasingly clear that other measures were ineffective in accomplishing that necessary objective," Outlaw said June 1.

The video is about 50 minutes long and does not show any footage of the vehicle being rocked by protesters.

About 40 minutes of the video shows traffic at a crawl along the highway, being filmed from a stationary state police vehicle.

The vehicle then heads east on the highway toward the area in which protesters gathered. The video captures a voice on police radio saying "they're peaceful" referring to the protesters.

The trooper exits the vehicle and more protesters approach from the west. One person sprays something on the vehicle's windshield before the video ends.

At no time in the video does the vehicle appear to be attacked or rocked by protesters, save for the person spraying something on it.

By about 5:15 p.m., the scene was cleared and numerous people were arrested.

The use of tear gas is being investigated by the police department's Internal Affairs Division.

Kenney said he never wanted to see tear gas used during his time as mayor and that he was saddened to see peaceful protests lead to those actions.

You can watch the full dashboard camera video here.