‘Show Me!’: North Carolina Cop Suspended After Demanding Woman Hand Over Ring Video Without Warrant, Then Barged in and Cuffed Her
A Greenville, North Carolina, police officer was put on leave last week after detaining and handcuffing a young Black woman who answered her door at 3:30 a.m. during a live shooting investigation near her apartment and said she could not produce doorbell camera video for police because her camera battery was low.
On August 18, several Greenville Police Department officers responded to a report of shots fired at an apartment in South Greenville, where they found three bullet holes in a window a few doors down from the apartment of Uniquea Teel.
No one was injured, but police said the shots narrowly missed two young children who were in the living room, WITN reported.
A Rude Awakening
After a male officer knocked on her door at 3:33 a.m. to ask if she could share her doorbell camera video, a groggy Teel told him that her camera was “dead,” only at “10 percent,” and hadn’t recorded anything.
Seeming to glance at her doorbell, the officer said skeptically, “It’s dead? It’s working,” and walked away.
A few minutes later a female officer, Jennifer Umphlet rang her doorbell and again asked Teel for access to the Ring video. Teal explained, “My camera is not working, it is currently on 10 percent, it’s dead … it is not going to get any footage, any recording of what’s going on.”
Battery-operated Ring cameras do not record continuously, to save energy. They do turn on when movement is detected, according to Ring support documents.
A Threatening Ultimatum
“Listen to me,” Umphlet said in a stern tone in the video. “You pull it up and show me that it’s not working and I will leave you alone. Otherwise, I’m ripping it off the wall, I’m writing a search warrant and I’m going to keep you up all night.”
When Teel reiterated that she could not provide it, adding that she had a baby inside, Umphlet opened her front door and forced her way inside, and could be heard telling Teel to put her hands behind her back.
“You’re now being detained because you’re not cooperating with an investigation,” Umphlet said. “You had an opportunity. This is where we’re at. You’re delaying my investigation.”
The female officer tells Teel she could have easily pulled up her phone “and showed us it’s not recording. Instead you wound up in handcuffs over nothing.”
“You never asked for that,” Teel complained. “I’m asleep, it’s 3 in the morning — I got to work at 6 in the morning.”
According to her Facebook page, Teel works as a hairstylist at a local salon in Greeneville.
“Well now you’re going to be up til 6,” Umphlet said. “I can guarantee you.”
Another male officer caught on the Ring video expressed frustration with Teel’s refusal to share her video, telling her, “There’s like a 5-year-old girl that almost died right there and you’re going to act like this?”
A Phone Search With No Consent
According to her Facebook post recounting the incident, which Teel created around 4 a.m., attaching Ring video of her front door encounters with several officers, one of the officers who came inside her apartment, without asking for her consent, walked to her bedroom where her 1-year-old daughter was asleep, retrieved her phone and held it to Teel’s face to unlock it, while she was still in handcuffs.
After looking for but not finding the video footage they wanted on her phone, she said the officers asked her if she had deleted anything on her phone. Teel said no, and police gave her the phone back, uncuffed her, and left.
She told WITN last week that she and her daughter were traumatized by the encounter, which has made her “scared” of Greenville police.
“I don’t even know what’s going on,” she said. “I was awakened up out of my sleep for this. Why are y’all looking at me as if I’m part of whatever is going on?”
Officer Suspended During Internal Investigation
Greenville Police Chief Richard Tyndall said the department was looking into the videos Teel had posted.
“We have started an internal affairs investigation to make sure that we get all the facts involved. Obviously, that’s one side of the story,” Tyndall said.
Police also released a statement on Wednesday clarifying that Umphlet is now on paid administrative leave while the department conducts its investigation into her “interaction with a neighbor that appears to be the subject of a Facebook post.”
“While we have not received a formal complaint, we take any concerns about the conduct of our officers seriously,” the statement continued. “The Greenville Police Department will look closely at the circumstances surrounding the encounter and the actions of the officers involved to determine whether they were consistent with department policy and training. We ask for patience as we conduct this review and will provide additional information as appropriate.”
Criminal defense attorney Tyrell Clemons told WITN that in most cases, police need a search warrant to enter a home or search a device. Police can detain someone if they reasonably believe that person might obstruct or destroy evidence.
After viewing the videos, Clemons said the Greenville Police had likely violated Teel’s Fourth Amendment right not to be subject to unlawful search and seizure by police.
Not Her First Time
Umphlet was previously investigated for her use of force during an arrest in February 2025 at a Greenville McDonald’s.
During the arrest of Anthony Drayton by officers investigating a trespassing complaint at the restaurant, Umphlet can be seen in bystander video hitting Drayton on the back of the head three times with metal handcuffs. Police later said the man was resisting arrest and had just kicked another officer in the groin.
At trial Drayton was found guilty of resisting arrest but not guilty of assaulting an officer. The officers involved, including Umphlet, faced no discipline over the incident.
A disabled veteran also claims Umphlet treated him wrongly and violated his constitutional rights during an arrest earlier this year.
Officers were called to Preston Joyner’s home after a neighbor reported a possible sexual assault. Joyner claims he was playing with his daughter in a tent when officers approached. He says Umphlet was extremely rude and antagonistic during his arrest.
“She didn’t care. She basically said to me, ‘When you want to change your story, let me know,’ and I’m just like, ‘I don’t even know what’s going on,’” Joyner said.
He was charged with resisting a public officer. Those charges were eventually dropped.