The gloating photo cops took parading newly captured 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 police captain who is now the senior director of law enforcement initiatives at the Center for Policing Equity.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
Prosecutors 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.
A preliminary hearing for Cavalcante has been set for Sept. 27, according to court documents, which noted he was denied bail.
With Post wires
