AMHERST, N.Y. — Cortney Heitzman was stopped at gunpoint by Amherst Police as she pulled into her driveway on Friday, May 31.
The reason why is complicated.
On May 10, Heitzman's Kia Optima had been stolen.
"It was stolen while I was at work in the city of Buffalo," Heitzman said.
She reported it stolen to Buffalo Police, but four hours later, in a different police district than the one it was stolen from, the vehicle was recovered and sent to the Dart Street impound.
"The vehicle had not yet been entered into the NYSPIN system yet," said Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. "Therefore, when the officers got this abandoned vehicle, they did not know that it was stolen."
NYSPIN is the New York Statewide Police Information Network, it's the system that allows every police department to easily share information.
Eventually, Buffalo Police entered the vehicle into NYSPIN as stolen, but it was actually located at the Dart St. impound.
"We're now dealing with a different agency within the department, parking enforcement, that is not in our police reporting system," Gramaglia said.
Heitzman recovered the vehicle and had it towed to an Amherst body shop on May 13.
After a couple of week's worth of repairs, Cortney got her car back from the repair shop on May 29 and assumed everything was fine.
But, on May 31, while driving on Sweet Home Road, an Amherst Police officer scanned her license plates and they popped up on his computer as stolen.
The officer whipped around and began following Heitzman to her home. For her privacy, we have withheld the street in which she lives.
Heitzman's vehicle is registered to the address where this incident occurred and would have appeared on any NYSPIN search that the Amherst officer conducted on the computer in his police vehicle.
"I pulled into the street that leads to my home, and I noticed a police officer tailing me," Heitzman said. "He sped up really close, and there were no lights."
As she pulled into her driveway, the Amherst officer switched on the lights of his police cruiser, exited, and conducted a felony traffic stop.
Several police departments have confirmed with 2 On Your Side that an officer drawing their firearm is often standard for a felony traffic stop involving a stolen vehicle.
In a bodycam video obtained by 2 On Your Side, the officer can be heard telling Cortney to "get back in her vehicle it's coming back as stolen."
Multiple times, the officer tries to get Cortney's attention by calling her name, but she was shocked to see she was being stopped at gunpoint.
"I wasn't prepared for was when I got out of the car and turned around that there was a gun pointed at me, without any kind of verification or any kind of assessment of any kind of situation," Heitzman said. "When I told the police officer that this was my vehicle, it was like I wasn't being heard."
The officer in the bodycam video can be heard saying that all police officers are trained to draw their weapons when conducting a felony traffic stop.
WGRZ asked Amherst Police Chief Scott Chamberlin if drawing a weapon is standard operating procedure during a felony traffic stop for the department.
"It depends on the situation," Chief Chamberlin said. "If they gather enough information to know that it's not stolen, then maybe they wouldn't do it."
Chief Chamberlin went on to say that "if the officer feels that there could be some danger involved, is when they would initiate a stop like that," and that "I think it would vary by officer as well."
The entire traffic stop lasted approximately five minutes, a little more than two minutes during which the officer had their gun drawn.
"I don't understand what empowered that police officer to hold the gun on me for so long," Heitzman said. "What was so threatening about me and the situation that the gun had to come out in the first place?"
Chief Chamberlin said it could have been the tinted windows of the Kia Optima that raised speculation by the police officer.
"This was negligence by the Buffalo Police Department, I apologize for that, " the officer said as the situation eased.
After several minutes, and after Heitzman provided ID, dispatch ensured the vehicle was removed from NYSPIN as stolen.
Chief Chamberlin says the incident and response by his officer was standard.
"Once he was able to figure out no one else is in the car, this is the owner, then he stopped and tried to then have a conversation and explain what happened," Chamberlin said. "We always teach our officers that, you know, to be empathetic to the people that they're dealing with."
But the experience of being held at gunpoint in her own driveway has left Cortney with a sense of uneasiness.
"I don't feel safe, I don't feel safe in my vehicle. I don't feel safe in the neighborhood," Heitzman said. "It's hard for me to explain that these are supposed to be the good guys."
More than two months after the incident, Cortney says the situation has left her feeling that the human element of the Amherst Police was lacking.
" It just felt like, in that moment, that I wasn't a human, that this traumatic experience happened, 'but oh well, it's another day at the office for me see you later,'" Heitzman said. "That's not right."
Chief Chamberlin says that there haven't been any changes to department policy since this incident occurred.
Changes by Buffalo Police
After an inquiry from 2 On Your Side, Buffalo Police have added a new layer of checks and balances to ensure a similar incident doesn't happen again.
"One thing I worked out after finding out about this is I was in contact with the parking commissioner and asked they have protocols before they release a vehicle," Buffalo Police Commissioner Gramaglia said.
Gramaglia says that as an extra layer of checks and balances, parking enforcement will check NYSPIN for any stolen vehicle reports for a vehicle they intend to release.
"I asked them to do as one more fail-safe is to run the license plate of any vehicle before it is released, to ensure that it has not been reported stolen by any agency," Gramaglia said. "If it is, then to contact Buffalo Police so that we can have that removed."
Commissioner Gramaglia says that change has already been put in place.
"I think within probably a day or two, of you contacting me, I put that into place with parking," Commissioner Gramaglia said.
While instances of this specific scenario are rare, according to Commissioner Gramaglia, they have in fact happened in recent years as the number of stolen vehicles has increased.
"It's very unfortunate that the situation did occur," Gramaglia said. "We certainly apologize that she went through a traumatic incident, and we certainly reacted very quickly."
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