The gloating photo cops took with newly recaptured murderer Danelo Cavalcante on Wednesday is drawing heat from law enforcement experts — with one retired captain calling it “really inhumane.”
More than 30 officers and federal agents — including a hero K-9 — assembled around a handcuffed Cavalcante moments after he was captured early Wednesday, ending the two-week manhunt for the “armed and dangerous” killer.
Helicopter footage caught a colleague holding up a phone camera as the group squeezed into the shot, some even taking a knee as Cavalcante stood in the middle.
“They’re proud of their work,” Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said in defense of the snapshot.
“I’m not bothered at all by the fact that they took a photograph with him in custody.”
Some policing experts, however, disagree.
“It is not appropriate. It is not ethical. It’s really inhumane,” said Niles Wilson, a retired Newark, NJ, police captain who is now the senior director of law enforcement initiatives at the Center for Policing Equity.
Experts said they understood the officers wanted to celebrate Danelo Cavalcante’s capture, but that the move was not humane. twitter“In my law enforcement experience, I know how amped up police can get, but that’s not an excuse to mistreat someone.”
While taking photos, especially after a successful arrest, has become more prevalent with smartphones, many law enforcement agencies have social media guidelines barring such posts to officers’ personal pages.
Still, experts say those rules are inconsistent and have not been implemented by each agency across the board.
Some policing experts said the group snapshot was not appropriate for officers to take. AP“There’s not standards or uniformity in those policies,” said Adam Scott Wandt, an associate professor of public policy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“From a policing ethics point of view, a police officer taking a picture on the street and putting it on social media or doing it as a celebratory or retaliatory thing is not OK,” Wandt said.
Everything to know about the hunt for prison escapee Danelo Cavalcante
Convicted killer and escaped fugitive Danelo Cavalcante was captured when a K9 officer sniffed him out in the Pennsylvania woods
Cavalcante, 34, infamously crab-walked up two walls at Chester County Prison to escape Aug. 31.
The 5-foot-tall killer was originally behind bars in the US for fatally stabbing his girlfriend in 2021.
Previously, in November 2017, Cavalcante allegedly confronted a friend in the middle of town in Brazil over money and gunned him down.
He eventually made his way to the US using a fake identity, slaying his partner four years later in front of her young son and daughter.
A week after being sentenced to life in August, Cavalcante escaped.
Police said the diminutive perp was “armed and extremely dangerous” after he was spotted stealing a rifle out of a Pennsylvania homeowner’s garage.
“As an attorney, it is an evidentiary problem being created here too. It’s a dangerous practice for a police officer to create evidence on a scene and not properly turn it over to the prosecutor.”
While the Pennsylvania State Police has a conduct policy that prohibits posting or forwarding images of investigations or operations — as well as content that depicts the agency’s uniform, badge or other official gear without authorization — it’s unclear if Wednesday’s photo would fall under that policy.
Leonard Sipes, a former officer who has worked for 35 years in public affairs and communications for federal and state law enforcement agencies, said he would have advised the officers not to take the pic.
Cavalcante was caught after being on the run for two weeks. Pennsylvania Department of Corrections via Getty Images“The police had nothing to do with the release of the photo. It was made available by a news source,” Sipes said.
“But posing with the suspect, that’s questionable. If I was on the scene as the public affairs officer representing a law enforcement agency, I would have discouraged it.”
Various photos of Cavalcante immediately following his arrest have been circulating, including a shot of police dog Yoda pinning him down and him being bloodied after the K-9 bit his scalp.
Cavalcante, 34, who escaped from Chester County Prison on Aug. 31, had just been sentenced to life for stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death in front of her two young children in 2021.
Other photos of Cavalcante bloodied following his capture have also been circulating online. @policyscoopProsecutors are expected to levy additional charges for crimes he committed during his 14 days on the run.
In addition to the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Cavalcante is suspected of gunning a friend down with six shots in 2017 during a dispute over car repair payments back in his Brazilian hometown.
After that killing, he hid out in the Brazillian ranchlands for weeks before making his way north and illegally entering the US.
Police dog Yoda was responsible for locating Cavalcante on Wednesday in rural Pennsylvania.
A preliminary hearing for Cavalcante has been set for Sept. 27, according to court documents, which noted he was denied bail.
With Post wires
