Does a viral video show real bodycam footage of a cop trying to illegally search a car and finding out it is his boss, the new sheriff? No, that's not true: The Axon bodycam timestamp in the video is a fake and does not look like the timestamps in real police videos. The video was published on a YouTube channel that appears to contain several other videos that were filmed on sets and stages often used by viral video creators.
The video (archived here) appeared on a a channel named Body Camera Stories on June 24, 2025 under the title "Cops tries to illegally search car and finds out its his boss". Lead Stories made following transcript of the video:
Cop: My man, I'm going to give you this ID back.
Voiceover: Watch a crooked cop push an illegal search until the driver reveals he's the new sheriff in town. Violation of the Fourth Amendment, career ending. This takedown will leave you speechless.
Cop: Go ahead and take that, but do me a favor.
Driver: (unintelligible)
Cop: I don't. Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. I... I got that information, but I just I don't know what's going on in the back of this car. Now, if you wouldn't mind hopping out of the car, you've already been complying. I appreciate that, but I... I want to see what's in the back. You got me
Driver: What's going on with the car?
Cop: What's... It's... There's... Absolutely, and and it seems like it's running great. The problem is..., is that I don't know what's in the back seat with these tinted windows. So, I'm not sure Are you new to the community or something? Like, we don't generally have windows this dark here in our community. Uh and part of the reason is the cops don't feel safe. So, we end up having to uh pass ordinances to get it a little more lowered down so that we can see into the car. So, you got anything in the back seat that I should be afraid of?
Driver: That's the most bogus story I ever heard in my life.
Cop: I'm just saying like I know it gets hot here, but with when we can't see, we've actually had to pass two ordinances last 5 years cuz it was too dark for us to be able to see into anybody's car. So, we didn't know what people were hiding, drugs, you know, children smuggling, whatever. Just any kind of inconspicuousness it's not on the up and up. We're not trying to have that. So, again, you're cool with me looking in the back seat? Like, but I'm going to need you to get out and let me...
Driver: Just put your head in the car, I don't bite.
Cop: That's the thing. No, no, no. I can't. Protocol doesn't allow me to do it that way. I got to be in the car alone. I'm going to have to put you in my car while I pop out or at least pop you out. At the least I got to pop you out. I can't have you in the car while I'm in the car. So, if you could step out, let me take a look through this car. Make sure there's no... or you can just declare. Do you have anything to declare? Are there guns? Am I going to find anything? Knives, weapons, drugs? Am I going to find anything like that? Do you want to declare anything?
Driver: You know what? I'm going to let you search the car. And I'm going to have a word with you soon.
Cop: You are?
Driver: Yes, I'm going to have a word with you soon.
Cop: You're going to let me search this car.
Driver: I'm going to let you do what you feel like that it's right that you should do.
Cop: Yeah. So you're giving me consent. You consent to search of this car. That's key. I got to have you say that you consent to me searching this car.
Driver: Yes, sure.
Cop: Right now.
Driver: Yes, sure.
Cop: So I can pop you out of this car and we're going to go from there. You're going to comply. Go ahead. Can you kill the engine, my friend? Yeah, cuz I can't have you as the second I step away you smash the gas and take off. If I'm going to pop you out of this car, I have to have this car shut down and you out of it.
Driver: What's your name again?
Cop: Officer Johnson. What is what does that have to do with anything?
(unintelligible)
Cop: Absolutely, I appreciate it. So back to this cuz I this is very key. You consent me searching this car with you. I can pop you out. We'll turn the car off.
Driver: Sure.
Cop: We're going to do that? Okay. Go ahead and kill the engine. I can't do this with you in the car like that. I apologize. I don't know if this is your wife's car with this neat crochet or whatever. I mean I... I've never seen it. Go ahead my man. Step out of the car. Go and pop out. Slowly. Keep those hands where I can see. I'm just going to take a look in the back seat.
Driver: Hey, buy yourself something to eat.
Cop: No, my man. I can't I can't take a bribe like that. Oh my god. I can't. There's no we can't do My man I can't do. Okay, my man. I just see you slowly step away. Slowly step away, I appreciate that. But I'm going to have to pop. Okay, nothing in the back. Man, go ahead and step slowly this way. Just let me take a look. Slowly, please, please, please, please, please. My man. I don't really trust you by me. Can I get you step right over there? All right, nothing, great.
Click below to watch the video on YouTube:
Other than the voiceover there is nothing in the video that would indicate the driver is the new sheriff in town or the new boss of the "crooked cop". There is also no police cruiser or uniform visible in the video that would allow the incident to be tied to a specific location.
However a big clue that the videos is not an authentic bodycam clips is that the Axon Body 2 timestamp in the upper right corner does not use the same number font as authentic Axon Body 2 devices use. The zeroes in the fake timestamp do not have a slash through them.
(Source: screenshot of YouTube by Lead Stories)
This is what the numbers on an authentic Axon Body 2 video look like, as shown in the Axon.com page explaining how to read its timestamps:
(Source: screenshot of Axon.com by Lead Stories)
In addition to that, several of the other videos posted on the "Body Camera Stories" YouTube channel (archived here) appear to be filmed on sets owned by Network Media, a company that rents out film sets (archived here) to "content producers" who publish similar scripted scenes:
(Source: Network Media screenshot)
(Image source: Lead Stories collage)
