By Shelly Bradbury
Chattanooga Times Free Press
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The two Chattanooga police officers caught on video allegedly drag racing their patrol cars have turned themselves in to the department’s internal affairs division, according to police.
The two officers, Mark Niethammer and Mikel Thomas, identified themselves as the people in the video, spokesman Kyle Miller said.
The incident happened at 1810 Crutchfield Street around July 10, according to police. Internal affairs investigators will now conduct formal interviews with the two officers, Miller said.
In the video, which was posted to YouTube and Facebook, an unidentified man films the two patrol cars from a distance. The two cars pull up next to each other, stop, and then take off rapidly down the street, away from the camera.
The man behind the camera narrates the 35-second clip.
“Look at these two cops,” he says with a Southern accent, “Look like they’re going to try to drag race each other down the road here. Parking right beside each other. They might be getting ready to — yep there they go. Tax dollars going to the good folks. They all both suck. Idiots.”
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