Officers under fire for alleged unlawful strip searches, arrests

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga.

Allegations of unlawful public strip searches and bogus arrests by officers from the Forest Park Police Department are now detailed in a lawsuit against the department and the city.

The lawsuit alleges the department's specialized VIPER unit violated the Fourth Amendment rights of several people without probable cause to search or warrants to arrest.

"'Stand right here. Unbuckle your pants.' I was like, 'Unbuckle my pants for what?' plaintiff Terry Philips told Channel 2s Kerry Kavanaugh.

"Told me I had to pull my pants down, bend over, squat and cough for him, said plaintiff Jeffrey Meehan.

The men say traffic stops in 2013 ended with Forest Park police officers strip-searching them in public."When he came back, I'd seen tears," said Tamara Parker.

Parker says she and Terry Philips had just left a grocery store when an officer pulled them over for an expired tag. They said they had the paperwork proving otherwise, but the officer wouldnt listen.Jeffery Meehan says he was in the back seat of a friend's car when the driver was stopped for not using a blinker. He says they were pulling out of a parking lot and making a right-hand turn when they were stopped.

Meehan says he was searched three times.

"I asked him why, was I being (put) under arrest. He said 'No you're not', but he said, 'You're going to go to jail if you don't do what I'm telling you,'" Meehan told Kavanaugh.

Another couple says they were home asleep when Forest Park officers broke down their front door.

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Officers under fire for alleged unlawful strip searches, arrests