The bodycam footage from Justin Timberlake’s June 2024 arrest in Sag Harbor, New York, is now public, and it shows the pop star doing what very few people manage gracefully: trying to explain who they are to a police officer who does not appear particularly impressed.
The video, more than eight hours in total, was released Friday after Timberlake and the Village of Sag Harbor reached a settlement resolving his legal effort to block its disclosure. The footage covers the roadside traffic stop, the field sobriety tests that followed and the hours Timberlake spent at the police station before his release.
The stop began with a familiar exchange and a famous name
Officers pulled Timberlake over after observing his grey rental BMW run a stop sign in the village center and veer onto the wrong side of the road. When an officer approached the driver’s side window, Timberlake apologized for the driving behavior and explained that he was in town because he was on tour.
When the officer asked what kind of tour, Timberlake paused, stammered and offered that it was hard to explain before settling on the phrase world tour and adding his own name as clarification. The officer asked to see his license.
The charging document filed at the time of the arrest noted that Timberlake’s eyes appeared bloodshot and glassy and that officers detected a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. Timberlake told officers he had consumed one martini that evening and had been following friends home through the village.
🚨 BREAKING: Newly-released police body cam from Justin Timberlake’s DWI arrest in Sag Harbor, NY shows him struggling through field sobriety tests, and his friend playing the *NSYNC card. pic.twitter.com/HrEWCjZAKj
— TMZ (@TMZ) March 21, 2026
Sobriety tests produced several difficult moments
The footage shows Timberlake attempting a series of standard field sobriety exercises, including walking heel-to-toe in a straight line and tracking an officer’s hand movement with his eyes. He stumbled several times during the walking test and at one point told the officers his heart was racing and that he was nervous. He declined to take a breathalyzer test.
At one point during the testing, Timberlake remarked that the exercises were genuinely difficult, a comment that became one of the more widely noted moments after the footage was released.
Officers placed him in handcuffs and put him in the back of the patrol car. From the back seat, he asked why he was being arrested. When told he would be held overnight, he expressed surprise and told the officers they were wild.
A friend’s appeal invoked an unlikely argument
A woman who had been out with Timberlake and her husband that evening arrived at the scene as he was being taken into custody. She asked officers if she could give Timberlake his phone and, when that was declined, appealed to them on the basis of their presumed familiarity with his music catalog, referencing two of his most recognizable songs in a request for leniency.
The appeal did not produce the result she was looking for, but officers allowed her a brief moment with Timberlake before transporting him to the station. He asked the officers to leave the cell light on as they locked the door.
A legal settlement ended the fight over the footage
Timberlake’s lawyers had argued in court that the footage placed him in an acutely vulnerable state and that releasing it would cause severe and irreparable harm to his reputation. They sought to block its disclosure as an invasion of privacy. The judge ruled that the footage did not meet that threshold under New York’s public records law, and both sides ultimately agreed to release a partially redacted version.
The Sag Harbor village attorney said the village had sought from the beginning to comply with the state’s freedom of information requirements, and that the settlement allowed them to do so while addressing privacy and safety considerations through the redactions.
Timberlake pleaded guilty in September 2024 to a non-criminal traffic violation of driving while impaired, a lesser charge than the original driving while intoxicated misdemeanor. He was fined $500, ordered to complete 25 hours of community service, had his license suspended for 90 days and was required to deliver a public safety statement outside the courthouse. He told those gathered that even one drink before driving was a mistake he hoped others would learn from.
