VIDEO: Iowa Officer Arrests ‘Drunk Driver’ Who Wasn’t Drunk?

Disclaimer: Not all police officers treat citizens so poorly as this video shows. We cannot thank the men and women in blue enough for their service and work to keep their communities safe. 

Every day around the country, people are pulled over by police officers for traffic violations. It happens to nearly all of us and the vast majority end without incident. However, a viral video of body cam footage from an Iowa police officer shows an uncomfortable encounter with a young driver.

Originally, the Iowa driver was pulled over for driving with high beams on instead of his headlights. The driver admits his headlight was out, so he resorted to his bright lights. This is when the story escalates. Somehow this small traffic violation quickly spiraled into an arrest for drunk driving.

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This unfortunate situation happened in the town of Newton, Iowa. 19-year-old student-athlete at William Penn University Tayvin Galanakis was the young driver in the video police officers pulled over in August of 2022. The Newton Police officers who were involved in this incident were Officer Nathan Winters and Lt. Christopher Wing. Tayvin was heading home from a friend's house when he got pulled over. Getting a ticket for a headlight is not uncommon. But how the officers handled this delicate situation is questionable.

In the video, it's clear that one of the officers repeatedly asks Tayvin, “How much have you had to drink tonight?” Not once did Tayvin refuse to take a breathalyzer or other sobriety tests. In fact, he encouraged the officers to test him and they refused. Eventually, officers do arrest Tayvin for Operating While Intoxicated even after he blew a 0 into the breathalyzer and completed other tests.

Since Tayvin posted the video on his YouTube channel, it's gone viral and has generated 2 million views. Additionally, the Des Moines Register reports Tayvin has also sued the Newton Police Department and the city. The lawsuit claims "the city and its police department are guilty of false arrest, civil rights violations and negligent supervision and training." Tayvin's arrest is sparking a huge debate about trust in police officers not just in small-town Newton, but also in larger cities.

There are a lot more details to this story that you can read about here. Do you think the Newton police officers wrongfully detained Tayvin? Were the officers in the right or wrong?