NFTA cop caught cursing at cameraman

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The video recently emerged on YouTube, and now the NFTA has suspended an officer for an incident caught on camera. The NFTA believes it happened after a Thursday at the Square concert last year.

Watch the video and listen as a Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority K-9 officer confronts a person taking video.

The officer says, "If you take my picture again, I'm going to [expletive] break your face. That's not as a police officer, that's as a person."

The video was posted to YouTube on May 28th. The author claims it was taken following a fight at Thursday at the Square in Buffalo.

"Don't take my picture again. Don't take my picture again," says the officer.

NFTA spokesperson Douglas Hartmayer says he first learned of the video Monday.

Hartmayer said, "I immediately looked at and bad is an understatement."

Hartmayer confirms that it is an NFTA officer and that disciplinary action has been taken.

"The officer was immediately suspended for two days by the chief for his actions and he's going through some remedial training right now," said Hartmayer.

We tried making contact with the author of the video through the YouTube page, but we have had no response. And Hartmayer told News 4 there has been no complaint filed with the NFTA.

Hartmayer said, "If he or she wants to come forward, that's certainly up to the individual, but again this is well over a year old. It's the first time it's surfaced. It's the first time I was made aware of it. It's the first time the chief was made aware of it. So I don't know where it's been for a year, and I don't know why it just turned up on Monday."

This isn't the first caught on camera controversy for the NFTA. In April, a video surfaced of a transit police officer pepper-spraying a community activist during an anti-war rally in downtown Buffalo.

"We feel the officer was within his rights at this point, though we have taken an internal review that is still being worked on," said Hartmayer.

But it's a new controversial video that's already received nearly 20,000 views on YouTube. Hartmayer says the NFTA has brought in a First Amendment specialist to talk to officers and assist in revising a policy that deals with photography.

Hartmayer adds the officer's name is not being released and that it's being treated as an internal matter. News 4 was told the officer in the video has apologized to his chief and his fellow officers.

Please Note: This unedited video contains profanity. Viewer discretion advised.