COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Lyft driver was arrested in Cobb County last week while on the job. There was a passenger in the backseat of his car when he was stopped.
Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell got an inside look at how police were able to catch him.
License plate readers flagged his driver’s license and alerted analysts in Cobb police’s real-time crime center at their headquarters.
The driver, Divine Shakur, is accused of committing a crime more than 20 miles away.
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“The technology that law enforcement has at our disposal nowadays is really a game changer,” said Officer Aaron Wilson.
Shakur was working as a Lyft driver and picked up a passenger when his license plate got flagged.
Body camera video shared with Channel 2 Action News shows officers arresting Shakur.
“Back up, back up,” officers can be heard shouting. “Hey, hands up! Yeah, put them outside!”
Police say the moment was scary for the passenger in his back seat.
“Call an Uber right now,” officers can be heard telling the passenger. “You definitely ain’t paying for this one, man.”
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Shakur is facing aggravated assault charges out of East Point. He told Cobb police that he didn’t know there was a warrant for his arrest.
They have not commented on what led to those charges.
Investigators say that because of this technology, they are catching suspects and solving crimes more quickly.
“Now officers are alerted in real-time and they can start to coordinate and locate this wanted suspect,” Wilson explained.
Police say Shakur complied with all their commands and made the process much easier.
Newell reached out to Lyft to check his current employment status, and they are looking into it.
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