VALLEJO — A Vallejo police officer has returned to limited duty months after being placed on administrative leave in connection with two viral videos involving on-duty and off-duty use of force incidents.

Officer David McLaughlin first became the subject of controversy when he detained a Vallejo resident who had been filming a routine traffic stop from several feet away. Weeks later, he was placed on administrative leave after a video surfaced showing him pull a gun on a man in a Contra Costa County shopping center during an argument.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Vallejo police Capt. John Whitney confirmed to the Bay Area News Group that McLaughlin is back at work but “not on patrol.”

McLaughlin was placed on leave in February and the department opened an internal-affairs investigation after Vallejo resident Adrian Burrell, a Bay Area artist and filmmaker, posted a video to his Facebook page in January showing McLaughlin tackling and handcuffing Burrell who filmed the officer from his porch. The encounter took place Jan. 22.

In a separate email to the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday, Whitney said McLaughlin is on the limited status “pending the conclusion of the administrative process.”

Whitney also declined to say if McLaughlin is facing any discipline from the confrontation.

“Please keep in mind that police personnel records, and information therefrom, are confidential with a few exceptions that do not apply in this instance,” he wrote. “As such, we are unable to provide any additional or specific information.”

In the video, which generated millions of views on social media in just a few days, McLaughlin is seen detaining Burrell’s cousin, Michael Walton.

Burrell’s video shows Walton seated on a motorcycle parked in the driveway, with his helmet on, and hands raised.

McLaughlin begins to ask Walton questions when the officer notices Burrell filming from the porch and demands the man to “get back,” and Burrell replies, “Nope.”

“You’re interfering with me, my man,” McLaughlin says, and tells Burrell he will put him in the back of his squad car. Burrell replies: “That’s fine.”

“Stop resisting,” McLaughlin can then be heard saying.

“I’m not resisting. Put me on the ground,” Burrell replies.

In an interview at the time with the Bay Area News Group, Burrell said that’s when McLaughlin kicked his legs and knocked him over.

In the video, McLaughlin then tells Burrell, “That wasn’t very smart, man, now you’re going to jail.”

But later on, McLaughlin released Burrell after learning he was a military veteran, Burrell said.

It appears that McLaughlin may not have handled the situation correctly, according to the Vallejo Police Department policy manual, which was first obtained by the independent self-described news organization called Open Vallejo. The manual contains heavy redactions.

“Officers should promptly request that a supervisor respond to the scene whenever it appears that anyone recording activities may be interfering with an investigation or it is believed that the recording may be evidence,” the department’s Public Recording of Law Enforcement Activity policy states. “If practicable, officers should wait for the supervisor to arrive before taking enforcement action or seizing any cameras or recording media.”

The manual advises officers and supervisors should give clear, concise warnings and then provide “clear directions on what an individual can do to be compliant.”

“For example,” the policy states, “rather than directing an individual to clear the area, an officer could advise the person that he/she may continue observing and recording from the sidewalk across the street.”

The policy also lists what the supervisor’s responsibilities are in that particular situation and what is needed to seizing recordings as evidence. However, before release of the manual last month, the police department redacted those two sections of the policy, citing that it serves the public interest to not reveal that information.

After Burrell’s video went viral, KTVU had a story showing McLaughlin, while off-duty, holding a Concord man at gunpoint outside a Walnut Creek pizzeria after the two got into a verbal argument last August. Vallejo police announced McLaughlin was being placed on administrative leave days after the story broke.

In a video of that Aug. 11 confrontation, McLaughlin, dressed in shorts and a white T-shirt, points a gun at Santiago Hutchins, who has his hands raised above his head. Onlookers can be seen calling the police, unaware that the man with a gun is an off-duty officer.

Both Hutchins and Burrell have filed claims against the city of Vallejo. The claims are precursors to lawsuits. The Bay Area News Group reached out to City Hall regarding the status of those claims and has yet to hear back.

McLaughlin, a former Oakland patrol officer, joined Vallejo police in 2014. In August 2017 he and four other officers shot Benicia resident Jeffrey Barboa a total of 41 times, as Barboa walked toward the officers with a machete held above his head, after crashing his car during a high-speed police chase into Richmond. Barboa died, and a Contra Costa coroner’s inquest jury ruled it a suicide.

McLaughlin was sued in 2014 by a man who alleged excessive force, but the lawsuit was dismissed two years later after the plaintiff died.