US police officers place their son in jail for potty training failure - reports

Det. Sgt. Jessica Long and Lt. Michael Schoenbrod. Photo / Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety/Facebook

Two US police officers are being investigated after they put their 3-year-old son behind bars for soiling himself during potty training.

Lt. Michael Schoenbrod from Daytona Beach, Florida, reportedly took his son to the Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety Department and put him in jail.

On at least one occasion the child was also handcuffed.

The Daytona Beach News-Press reported that Schoenbrod told a caseworker from the Department of Children and Families caseworker: “He was crying. I was getting the response I expected from him.”

In the conversation, captured on body camera, Schoenbrod also tells the caseworker that the boy then promised to never soil himself again.

The Messenger reports that the boy was Schoenbrod’s son and he co-parents the child with Det. Sgt. Jessica Long, who is also under investigation.

The News-Press reports that Schoenbrod also admitted he had used the same method in the past, telling the caseworker he disciplined his older son by taking the then-4-year-old to jail for misbehaving at preschool.

Schoenbrod said he took the action because the boy admitted to hitting a girl.

“I took him to the jail and he sat there. And I watched him ... and he was crying and everything, and to this day, if you mention, like, that incident, he’s just like, ‘I would never do that again.’ It was effective,” Schoenbrod said.

“So that’s why I did it with this. He didn’t hit anybody, but I figured the same thing, discipline. And he didn’t want to go back, so ...”.

The bodycam footage also caught Long and Schoenbrod discussing the probe.

Long described the investigation as “insane” and Schoenbrod said it was “just disgusting that somebody would drag our family through the mud like this”.

Daytona Beach Police are yet to make any public comment on the investigation.