An NYPD detective who was disciplined in 2020 for posting a video in uniform denouncing George Floyd's killing was nearly fired for again posting to social media while in uniform, according to department records.
Detective Dmaine Freeland, a 19-year veteran who screens NYPD applicants, pleaded guilty in February to posting pictures of himself in uniform to his personal social media account three times in 2023, records show. Freeland also pleaded guilty to driving an unregistered and uninsured car.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch approved his penalty on July 10, according to documents recently made public. Freeland forfeited 45 vacation days and was placed on a year of probation, during which he can be fired at any time without another hearing.
"I acknowledge that such a recommendation is rarely appropriate for a Member of Service with such long tenure, but [Freeland's] willful flouting of Department rules calls for more than moral suasion," Paul Gamble, the NYPD judge, wrote in recommending the penalty.
The 2020 video, which Freeland recorded in uniform at his kitchen table, denounced Floyd’s killing. Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio praised it, but Freeland still forfeited six vacation days for posting pictures and a video of himself in uniform, the decision states.
Freeland, who is also a pastor at a Brooklyn church, testified that many young men in his congregation were skeptical when he told them he was a police officer, and that he posted the videos to improve community relations, the decision states. He testified that none of his posts portrayed the department negatively.
But Gamble wrote that Freeland seemed to believe the rules barred only negative portrayals.
"The policy prohibits any depictions of Members of Service in uniform or of Department symbols," he wrote.
The other charge stems from a 2011 Mercedes-Benz. Freeland surrendered its New York registration in July 2021 over 28 unpaid citations, then drove it for more than two years on Alabama plates whose registration expired that November, according to the decision. Police learned it was unregistered and uninsured only after he crashed it in September 2023, by which point he had 16 more unpaid violations totaling $1,400. He testified he has since paid what he owed.
Freeland previously served in the 109th Precinct in Queens and in drug enforcement in North Brooklyn. His employment record lists three straight "exceptional" performance ratings and a medal for meritorious police duty, and says he has "no formal disciplinary history."
Freeland's attorney, Marissa Gillespie, declined to comment.
