At first glance, it appeared odd for the Waterville Police Department to post a video on Facebook critical of its own policing practices.

The video was posted on Oct. 10 to what looked like the department’s official Facebook page. Titled “Welcome to Waterville, ‘the safest city in Ohio’,” it showed footage of the arrest of resident John J. Walz, home security video purporting to be of officers outside the man’s home, and other depictions of his interactions with police.

Some of the comments posted with the video express a mix of outrage and perplexity.

“I’m confused, is this the police department’s way of righting a wrong?” one woman’s comment begins.

Except the page in question — www.facebook.com/watervillepolicedept/ — doesn’t belong to Waterville police. The department hasn’t had a page ever since police officials took down their old Facebook account months ago.

“It turned out to be such a minefield,” Chief David LaGrange said of Facebook. “We decided there was better ways to get information out without Facebook.”

Instead, the page was created by Mr. Walz, and it’s title now includes a recently added disclaimer: “Waterville Police Department -- discussion page, not run by WPD.”

“I basically feel like I’m without a voice,” Mr. Walz said for why he created the page.

The chief said he sent a recent letter to Facebook asking that the site clarify it was not the department’s page, though Mr. Walz said he altered the page after realizing readers were confused. 

The social media events are just the latest in an apparent feud between Mr. Walz and the police department over his Sept. 18, 2016, arrest for disorderly conduct and failure to provide personal information to police.

The video — apparently partially using police body camera footage — shows two Waterville officers telling Mr. Walz to leave an area and return to his house, and then the officers handcuffing him when he instead inquires about the names of the officers.

Chief LaGrange said that video is just a snippet of the larger interaction. He said Mr. Walz had been photographing a children’s party and that some of the adults told him to leave. A dispute ensued, the chief said, and officers repeatedly attempted to get Mr. Walz to leave the area to avoid a confrontation. 

While the video does not show officers requesting Mr. Walz to identify himself, Chief LaGrange said previously they had. But a fuller version of the body camera footage, provided to The Blade by Mr. Walz, never shows the officers request his identification.

Mr. Walz, a photographer, said he wasn’t taking pictures of the party, but even if he had, that isn’t illegal. The body camera footage shows him being defiant but not combative.

Later footage in the video from the Lucas County Jail shows Mr. Walz naked in a cell. Capt. Donald Atkinson, who oversees the sheriff's internal affairs office, said Mr. Walz was combative during intake, so officers put him in a cell while handcuffed for about 30 minutes along with a jail jumpsuit.

Mr. Walz said he thinks jail staff left him naked as retribution for his dispute with the Waterville police.

In his Facebook video, footage of police cars slowly driving by his home are misleading, the chief said, because he lives adjacent to a park where officers often patrol. He also said Mr. Walz once showed up at an officer’s driveway and stared at the officer.

“We certainly don’t like to be shown in that light, but as far as we are concerned the issue was over two years ago once it went to court,” Chief LaGrange said. “We are not the ones keeping it alive."

Mr. Walz denies the chief’s assertion he showed up at the officer’s home and instead said the officer on a number of occasions attempted to start confrontations with him.

“I already felt like the guy is out for me,” he said. 

The charges against Mr. Walz were eventually dismissed, according to Maumee Municipal Court records, after he spent a year without committing similar offenses.

First Published October 23, 2018, 9:55 p.m.