“You hop out. You hop out — yo, E, stay in there, all right?” A traffic stop in New York City leads to a young black man being arrested for possession of marijuana. Marijuana laws have relaxed in much of the country. But in New York, there were still 18,000 arrests made last year. Those arrests are rarely contested. But videos provided to The Times by public defenders in this case raise troubling questions about how far officers are willing to go to make an arrest. The N.Y.P.D. told us the officers in this case did not act improperly. Here’s what happened: “Give me your license.” Officers Elmer Pastran and Kyle Erikson stop a BMW in Staten Island in February of 2018. They say the car windows were excessively tinted and the driver turned without signaling. Inside are four young black men. As backup arrives, they search the occupants. Officer Pastran recognizes some of the passengers and tells his partner that they are members of a violent gang from the area. The driver, Lasou Kuyateh, pleaded guilty to an assault in 2016. Erikson searches the passenger side and looks into the rear of the car. Note the rear floor area. This becomes important soon. Erikson moves to the driver’s seat and says he needs to find something incriminating. Just as Erickson says this, his body camera goes off. He later said it had a technical issue. But Pastran’s bodycam continues rolling. He’s searching the rear. Note the floor area again. Later, Erickson would say in court that he found a lit joint in plain view, here. But Pastran, who’s leaning right over the area, doesn’t see anything. A minute later, Erickson enters the rear of the car. He searches the back seat. Remember, his camera is still off. But Pastran’s camera catches Erickson. He appears to be fiddling with something in the back seat, but at no point suggests that he has found anything. The officers chat in the front. They’ve been searching the car for three and a half minutes. The owner of the car, who has a cellphone out, films Erickson holding small plastic bags. We don’t know where the bags come from or what Erickson is doing with them. The driver is handcuffed and his phone is taken from him. Pastran tells another officer that no contraband was found. At the same time, Erickson is inside the car. His bodycam turns back on. It has been off for over four minutes. The first 30 seconds of video have no sound. That’s because police bodycams keep rolling and save a segment of video that’s filmed just before they’re switched back on. The audio begins here, signifying the moment the camera was activated. Let’s rewind. It’s activated just as Erickson discovers evidence. He reaches toward the floor behind the driver’s seat. He comes up holding a joint and claims it’s lit. He believes this allows him to arrest all of the car’s occupants. Police officers are under pressure to make arrests and many would naturally think that four arrests are better than one. But Pastran shoots down the idea. As he’s taken to a police station, the driver, now in handcuffs, talks to Pastran. The driver was charged with possession of marijuana and spent two weeks in jail. During the court hearing, Officer Erickson testified that the joint was lit and in plain view when he found it on the floor. But remember, Pastran declared the area clean. That footage was entered into evidence, and during Erickson’s testimony, the judge intervened. The police department was advised that Erickson should get a lawyer. And in the end, the marijuana case was dismissed and sealed. The N.Y.P.D. told us that internal investigators examined these videos and found no police misconduct. Officer Pastran did not return our calls. And Officer Erickson declined to comment.