Georgia cop fired after repeatedly arresting innocent drivers for DUI
Commerce Police Officer Jacob Wood often decided he could spot impairment in the driver's eyes. Blood tests eventually proved him wrong.
COMMERCE, Ga. - Commerce has fired a police officer after he repeatedly accused people of drunk driving who turned out to be innocent.
Jacob Wood started with Commerce Police in June 2022. It is the only law enforcement job listed in his official state work history.
A FOX 5 I-Team investigation discovered Wood made twice as many DUI arrests in 2023 as the rest of the department combined. Often, Wood would charge someone with driving under the influence of drugs despite no evidence of drug use in the car.
Officer Wood noted this man had "a lack of smooth pursuit in both eyes," some of the clues that convinced him he was under the influence of drugs. A blood test proved otherwise. The DUI charge was dismissed, but not before Randall McDuffie suffered a
"He locked me up in front of my child," complained Shekela Usher. "And I wasn’t under the influence of anything."
Another officer originally pulled over Usher for "straddling the double line," according to Wood’s report. He was called in because of his advanced training to spot DUI offenders.
According to the report, Wood "noticed her eyes were bloodshot." He also said she failed a voluntary field sobriety test where Usher had to follow instructions on how to walk or stand.
Usher denied she was on drugs and agreed to a blood test. But on Feb. 6, before the results came back, the solicitor dismissed her DUI charge along with a dozen others.
"I’m 100% certain I’m innocent," she said, asking that the blood test results be eventually provided to her even though the case was over.
The FOX 5 I-Team interviewed others whose blood tests showed no drugs in their system, despite the officer’s insistence the field sobriety test gave him probable cause to arrest them for being impaired.
"I had blood running down my wrists because the handcuffs were so tight," remembered Randall McDuffie. His DUI-drugs case was tossed last fall after the test results came back clean.
"I asked the solicitor, ‘what about this officer who arrested me?’" McDuffie recounted from his court hearing. "It’s clear they had no clue what he was doing."
Yet Wood remained on the force until he was put on paid leave in January 2024, around the time the FOX 5 I-Team began asking for his arrest records. He was officially terminated on Feb. 20. He did not reply to a request for comment.
One of Wood's DUI cases dismissed earlier this month. The city is waiting for toxicology results to decide how many more should be thrown out.
In a statement, the city said it originally asked the GBI to start a criminal investigation, but the GBI said it "would not be warranted at this time as there does not seem to be a prosecutable crime which has been committed."
After Commerce Police conducted its own investigation, "the Department found that Officer Wood failed to adhere to supervisor direction and that some of Wood’s arrests were made in error…"
The statement said they are still reviewing the rest of Wood’s pending cases.
In September 2023, Wood took Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement from the Georgia Public Safety Training Center.
Mike Blute was his instructor. We asked him to review Wood’s body cam video from some of those bad arrests.
"I don’t know if I’d use the word disappointed, but alarmed maybe," said Blute. "I don’t know what the proper word is on this one."
He said he couldn’t tell from the videos whether the drivers actually failed the eye tests as Wood claimed — a key finding for impairment.
Blute said what he did not see is a rogue cop but a police department clearly in need of more training.
"When it comes to DUI enforcement, one thing means nothing," he explained. "It’s got to be — and every officer has always heard this — it’s the totality of the circumstances."