A widely circulated video titled “Cop Pulls Over Black Judge and Lives To Regret It” has been confirmed as staged. The footage, presented as police bodycam video, depicts a white officer from the fictitious “Sunny Springs, Florida” police department stopping a Black woman driving a Mercedes. After a brief exchange, the officer appears to smash her taillight, prompting the driver to reveal she is a judge and threaten legal action.
Fact-checking by Snopes revealed several inconsistencies: “Sunny Springs, Florida” does not exist, and the police logo on the cruiser closely resembles that of the Quincy Police Department in Washington state. The video was shot at 127 N.E. 27th St. in Miami, the same location used in a similar staged video from 2023. The taillight remains intact after the supposed smashing, and the Axon bodycam watermark uses an atypical font, differing from genuine Axon footage.
The video was posted by the YouTube channel “Bodycam Declassified,” which notes that some content may be reenacted to clarify certain encounters. Given these factors, the claim that the video depicts an authentic police encounter is false. This incident underscores the importance of critically evaluating viral content, especially with the increasing prevalence of AI-generated and staged media.
