City leaders reassessing police procedure after artist-in-residence detained at 701 Whaley

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) – Columbia city leaders and Columbia Police are reassessing some of their procedures after a tense police encounter this week at 701 Whaley, a well known venue in the city.

Thursday night Columbia Police released body-cam video of the incident that happened early Monday morning.

According to CPD, officers first noticed an outside door open and “making sure that there was not a crime in progress or anyone in distress, the officer notified 9-1-1
dispatchers of his intention to search the building.”

With their firearms drawn, officers search the building and find a man on the second floor in what appears to be a residential space. The video shows the man with his hands up who is ultimately placed in handcuffs.

The man immediately identifies himself as an artist-in-residence but CPD says the man stayed in handcuffs for eight minutes.  A release from CPD says officers were not advised that the building was available to an “artist-in-residence” and operating as a lodging rental property. They had the man detained until they could identify him through his Florida driver’s license and “make a determination that he was in fact an artist temporarily living in the building.”

On their way out of the building, you can hear officers comment they didn’t know people stayed in the building.

According to a CPD release Thursday night, “In review of the incident, Chief Holbrook has concluded that CPD officers conducted themselves professionally and within policy. The only misstep was when the on-scene supervisor did not agree to allow the artist to take pictures of officers.”

A CPD spokesperson also said, “The city manager has also expressed a need to better identify areas that operate as Airbnb locations and how that is communicated to public safety agencies including police, fire and EMS.”