The incident is the latest to involve police officers in Rochester who have caused widespread criticism and condemnation.
On the camera footage of the incident on February 22, an officer can be seen responding to a charge of shoplifting and confronting a woman holding on to the toddler.
The woman shows the officer the inside of her purse and insists she is not stealing anything.
The video shows the officer asking the woman to wait with him, but she runs away with the child in her arms. The officer then chased her down the street, grabbed her in a parking lot and restrained her.
The child can be seen wandering and crying in the middle of the fight until another officer arrives on the scene and pulls the child away.
In a statement, the Rochester Police Department said officers were responding to a report of a female shoplifter who ‘argues with shop employees and refuses to leave’.
Police said the woman sprayed with pepper matched the description of the suspect in the charge.
“The child was not sprayed or injured with the pepper during the arrest,” the statement said. “The woman was charged with trespassing and was given an appearance card.”
The officer in question was placed on administrative duty until an internal investigation was completed, police said.
The Rochester Police Department did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Several incidents
Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriot-Sullivan told a news conference on Friday that officers appeared to be following the department’s pepper spray policy, which is allowed if the individual ‘physically resists’.
But questions are being asked about the necessity of using such force.
Rochester police officers handcuffed him and covered his head with a ‘spit stocking’ after he spit on officers, according to camera footage.
‘Another strategy’
The Police Liability Council, which held a news conference on Friday to address the incident, said the department needed to fundamentally change its organizational culture.
The council said there was a “disturbing parallel” between the February 22 incident and the 9-year-old’s pepper spray in January.
“Both incidents involved black mothers. Both involved black children. Both involved black people in a crisis, of course. Both officers were involved with pepper spray on or around a black child,” the council statement read.
The Rochester Police Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rochester Deputy Chief of Police Andre Anderson said during Friday’s news conference that the department was working on ‘policy changes’, which include training courses on de-escalation and race relations.
“We need to understand how we should respond to young people and where they come from,” he said.
“When such incidents occur, I am relieved that I have made sure that cameras are carried by body carriers by our police so that we can see what is happening in our streets and hold officers accountable,” Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said. a statement said.
“Change will only happen if we have the ability to hold our officers accountable if they violate the trust of the public,” she said.
CNN’s Saffeya Ahmed, Laura James, Kay Jones, Alec Snyder and Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report.