Bodycam footage of a pregnant woman experiencing homelessness in Kentucky is highlighting a serious issue. In the video, the police officer is issuing the woman a citation for camping, which is illegal in the area where she was. As the police officer writes the ticket, the woman tells him she’s in labor.
The footage of the pregnant woman being issued a ticket has raised concerns about new laws concerning homelessness. Additionally, the video highlights the ways law enforcement officers treat homeless people.
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The officer's body camera footage was released to Kentucky Public Radio.
In bodycam footage obtained and published by Kentucky Public Radio, Lt. Caleb Stewart, head of Louisville Metro Police Department’s Downtown Area Patrol, approaches the pregnant woman while she stands beside a mattress on the sidewalk.
“I might be going into labor, is that OK?” she asks.
The woman had no way of calling for help.
“I’m leaking out,” she says as she gathers up a few of her belongings. Soon, a city dump truck pulls up, taking the mattress she was sitting near previously.
The pregnant woman didn’t have a phone, but she explains to the officer that her husband had gone to see if he could find one and call 911 for an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Lt. Stewart calls for an ambulance.
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The officer was enforcing a brutal new law around homelessness.
She asks the officer if she’s being detained after he prohibits her from walking to the street to look for her husband. “Yes, you’re being detained,” the officer shouted. “You’re being detained because you’re unlawfully camping.”
Stewart was patrolling to enforce the Safer Kentucky Act, which bans street camping. It is one of many new laws nationwide that criminalizes sleeping outside for people who are homeless. Police can issue citations to people sleeping on the street.
The officer doubted her claims.
“You don’t have to holler and you don’t have to push me,” the woman says to Stewart. “I haven’t done anything to you.”
Back at his car, Stewart writes the citation. And as he writes, he voices his disbelief that the pregnant woman is actually in labor. “So I don’t for a second believe that this woman is going into labor,” he tells himself. When he hands the citation to her, she throws it to the ground as an ambulance shows up.
“You’re all horrible people,” the woman said. “I’m glad y’all got this job to f— with the homeless and not help society.”
The woman has chosen to remain anonymous.
Later, Kentucky Public Radio reached out to the woman through her attorney, Public Defender Ryan Dischinger. Although she was fine with the radio station sharing the video, she didn’t want to reveal her identity. While speaking with KPR, Dischinger shared that the woman had given birth later that same day. Her family is now in a shelter.
“The reality for her, and for anyone who’s homeless in Kentucky, is that they’re constantly and unavoidably breaking this law,” he said. “What she needed was help and compassion and instead she was met with violence.” She is now waiting for a January court date, which could carry a fine.
One person wrote on YouTube: “Lt. Caleb Stewart, I hope you never find peace. What a horrible person.”
“The woman is in labor and his priority is to write a citation, wow,” another said.
“The cruelty of this police officer is extremely problematic,” someone else wrote. “I think he’s unfit for the job.”
