Confidential dash cam footage of a high-speed pursuit surfaced on Instagram last month, overlaid with rap music and an emoji-punctuated warning, in apparent violation of Vallejo Police Department policies.
The dash cam footage depicts the final seconds of a July 15 pursuit that ended when an officer rammed the suspect vehicle, causing it to spin out of control. The breach comes amid the Vallejo Police Department’s ongoing struggle to comply with a mandatory settlement agreement with the California Department of Justice over the agency’s history of aggressive policing and a culture of glorifying deadly force.
The video, which appears to be a cellphone recording of a department video display, appeared within hours of the pursuit as a temporary Instagram story on the profile “Seamusthekid.” Captioned “Don’t run from Team 3” alongside an emoji of a person wearing sunglasses, it is set to the song “Who Run It,” by Texas rappers Ro$ama and BigXThaPlug.
The account appears to belong to Vallejo Police Ofc. Seamus Lanham, 29, a member of the agency’s SWAT team. He did not respond to voicemails or a detailed email seeking comment.
When the video appeared on Instagram and for several days thereafter, the account featured a publicly available profile photograph of Lanham. It also included three pictures of Lanham posing with other people, according to a review of screenshots of the private account provided to Open Vallejo by a confidential source, who said they feared retaliation by Vallejo police. The profile picture and posts have since been deleted, although the account, now with several fewer followers, remains active.
Vallejo police spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis confirmed in an interview Friday that the agency is investigating the leak.
“We are aware of this incident and immediately initiated an internal investigation,” Hollis told Open Vallejo.
Lanham joined the Vallejo Police Department in 2019, according to public records. In June of 2022, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence after he was arrested in Roseville with a blood alcohol content three times the legal limit, court records show. Placer County Superior Court Judge Alan Pineschi sentenced Lanham to 20 days in jail with an alternative sentencing option and three years of informal court probation; he was also ordered to pay $1,914 in fines and fees. It is not known whether Lanham faced any discipline in connection with the incident.
The pursuit
The July 15 pursuit began around 8:39 p.m., when Vallejo SWAT officer Ted Garcia and trainee officer Johnny Lockwood tried to pull over a black Mercedes with no license plates near Interstate 80 and Tennessee Street, according to dispatch audio and other public records. The driver crashed into a wall but continued to flee, with officers giving chase. The pursuit reached speeds of 70 mph on surface streets even after a flat tire on the Mercedes shredded and fell away, with the driver at times swerving into oncoming traffic, according to dispatch audio.
Garcia was soon joined by other members of Team 3, including fellow SWAT officers Lanham and Sgt. Jeremy Callinan, as well as traffic officer Nicholas Petrie and officers assigned to a joint California Highway Patrol task force, public records show.
As the chase wore on, and after spike strips failed to stop the Mercedes, watch commander Lt. Steve Darden authorized a precision immobilization technique, according to dispatch audio. An officer performed the maneuver, striking the Mercedes with his SUV, which caused the car to spin out at the intersection of Sonoma Boulevard and Valle Vista Avenue. Nobody was seriously injured, according to police and fire records.
Police took two men into custody at gunpoint, later releasing the passenger along with his dog. First responders took the 47-year-old driver to a local hospital for alleged fentanyl exposure before booking him into Solano County Jail on two felony counts of evading police, according to public records.
Vallejo police pursuits have increased by 131% between 2018 and 2023, and by 33% between 2022 and 2023, according to the department’s most recent published data. In 2024, four people were killed by drivers fleeing from police, including a 76-year-old man who was crushed between two parked cars in October. Last July, two people died in police pursuits within three days of each other.
‘Exempt from public disclosure’
Vallejo police have previously faced criticism for incentivizing uses of force, including deadly force. In 2020, Open Vallejo broke open the department’s “Badge of Honor” scandal, in which officers bent the tips of their star-shaped badges to commemorate shooting civilians.
Lanham’s posting of the video appears to violate multiple Vallejo police policies, including prohibitions against the unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. Department guidelines prohibit employees from retaining personal copies of vehicle camera recordings or publishing them — or any other department-related recording — without authorization.
Department policy also forbids members from using personally owned recording devices while on duty without the express consent of the watch commander and from posting content relating to the department that could compromise the agency’s mission or damage its reputation.
On Wednesday, Open Vallejo filed a public records request for vehicle camera footage of the pursuit. The Vallejo Police Department denied the request the following morning, asserting that the video is a confidential investigative record exempt from public disclosure.
The Vallejo Police Department has a history of disciplining or firing officers for allegedly disclosing confidential information. In April 2021, Police Chief Shawny Williams terminated Lt. Herman Robinson, a 47-year veteran of the department, after an internal investigation found that he sent five emails containing sensitive information to a former police captain. An arbitrator later reinstated Robinson with back pay.
In other jurisdictions, similar breaches have led to officers being terminated or forced to resign. In March, the city of Columbus, Ohio fired a veteran officer after he was found to have “improperly and repeatedly” downloaded law enforcement materials to a personal device, according to WOSU Public Media. In Texas, an officer was arrested late last year and fired in April for the allegedly unauthorized release of body camera footage, according to local media reports.
