Joe Malinconico

Paterson Press

PATERSON – A video showing a plainclothes law enforcement officer searching a parked minivan in Paterson is under review by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, officials said.

The video went viral on Friday after being posted on the website Media Take Out with allegations that the officer was conducting an illegal search of the vehicle.

Officials confirmed that the officer depicted in the video is a member of the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office.

“In an effort to assure an independent investigation of the circumstances around the search video, the matter has been referred to the Prosecutor’s Office for a thorough and independent review,” said the spokesman for the sheriff’s department, Bill Maer.

Maer declined to reveal the name of the officer, when the incident occurred, or whether anyone was arrested. Officials said the incident happened on Union Avenue, near Jasper Street, in Paterson’s 1st Ward.

The video begins with the search of the vehicle underway. There’s no way to tell from the recording whether anything happened before that to prompt the search.

As of Friday afternoon, the Prosecutor’s Office had not released any information on the case.

In the video, the apparent owner of the SUV walks toward the vehicle and sees the plainclothes officer looking through the back storage area with the hatch open. The officer quickly shuts the hatch and walks away from the vehicle. The man then confronts him.

“What is you in my van for?” the man asks.

The officer is wearing khaki slacks and a red T-shirt with his badge hanging around his neck. His hair is wrapped in a bun atop his head.

The officer tells the man to come across the street with him, but the man refuses and asks again why the officer was searching his vehicle. “We’re getting a lot of complaints about guns,” the officer says.

The man, who says he was eating with his family, asks the officer how he got inside the vehicle. The officer says it “was open.”

About a minute into the video, a uniformed sheriff’s officer approachs the one in plainclothes, and the two of them talk outside the range of the recording. Two marked sheriff’s SUVs are parked at the scene in the video.

The owner of the van asks for the plainclothes officer’s name. The officer says he will give the man his business card. “I want your badge number, too,” says the man, who at one point in the video says he is not from the area.

The video was posted on Friday, and Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale said he received many calls from community members who mistakenly thought the officer was a member of the Paterson Police Department. Speziale said he checked the video and conferred with the ranking officer. Speziale said the Paterson Police Department was not involved in the incident.