What began as a day on the water ended with a college student in handcuffs after Florida Fish and Wildlife officers said they saw her operating a jet ski before it flipped in the inlet.
The bodycam footage, posted by the YouTube channel Arrest Cam Fish and Wildlife, shows officers responding after a man and a young woman went into the water near a dock. The woman, later identified in the footage as McKenna, repeatedly told officers she had not been driving the jet ski and only needed to get back to her boat.
The Arrest Cam host said at the end of the video that she was ultimately charged with boating under the influence and refusing to provide a breath sample. The channel also noted that it was unable to locate the case in the Palm Beach County court records system.
At the start of the footage, officers appear to be focused first on getting her safely out of the water. One officer tells others to help her, while another asks for a throw bag and reminds her that they want her out of the water because other boaters are nearby.
McKenna tells officers she is “live certified,” but they continue trying to pull her to safety. Once she is on the boat, she says her boat is the “fat yacht” nearby and asks to be taken there.
That moment almost feels like the point where the day could have stayed simple. She fell in, officers helped her, everyone cooled off, and she went back to her group. But the footage shows the situation quickly changing once officers began asking who had been operating the jet ski.
Officers Question Who Was In Control
One officer asks whether the man was on the throttle or whether both of them were on it. McKenna first says, “Both,” before being told to sit down because officers were concerned she might fall.
The man on the jet ski then gives his version of what happened. He tells officers he had put McKenna in front because the jet ski kept tipping and he thought more weight in the front would help with balance.
When officers press him on whether she was the one operating when it flipped, he eventually agrees that she was in front and had control at the moment officers saw them.
One officer says plainly that the reason they fell was because “she was operating the jet ski.” Another officer later tells McKenna that his body camera caught her hands on the throttles before the crash.
McKenna continues to reject that idea, saying she was only in front and that her hands were on the handlebars, not controlling the ride. But officers tell her that if the vessel was moving and she was on the controls, they considered that operating.
That distinction becomes the heart of the whole incident. To McKenna, she was just a passenger in a bad spot. To the officers, she was the person in control when the jet ski flipped.
“I Promise You I’m A Good Girl”
The footage then turns into a long back-and-forth as officers try to identify McKenna and figure out whether she has been drinking.
At first, she tells them she has not had anything to drink. Then she says she had “just like drinks with friends,” before saying she had a single seltzer and “not purposely.”
She repeatedly tells officers she is from Ohio, goes to Florida Atlantic University, and is “the mom of the group.” At one point, she says she is trying to become a police officer and is studying something related to investigation or criminal justice.
The officers keep asking her to sit down, partly because the boat is moving and they do not want her to fall. She keeps standing up, moving around, asking why they are “pressing” her, and insisting that she is not the problem.
“I promise you I’m a good girl,” McKenna says in the footage.
There is something painfully familiar about this part of the video. She seems to believe that if she can explain who she is – a student, a person with no record, someone who “rides for cops” – the officers will understand that she is not the kind of person who gets arrested.
But adult consequences do not usually care how someone sees themselves. They come from what happens in the moment, especially when alcohol, water, and a moving vessel are involved.
The Investigation Gets More Serious
The officers eventually tell McKenna they can hear her slurring her words and want her to perform seated field sobriety tasks.
They explain that the tasks are meant to help determine whether she was impaired. McKenna says she was not operating a vessel, but an officer tells her that she was operating when she crashed, and that he has it on body camera.
The officers give her a choice: complete the field sobriety tasks or they will make a decision based on what they already have. One officer describes it as a fair opportunity for her to show she was not intoxicated.
McKenna asks to call a lawyer and later says she is “pleading the Fifth.” An officer tells her they are not in court and are in the middle of an investigation.
The field tests do not go smoothly. Officers ask her to sit at the edge of the seat, place her feet shoulder-width apart, and follow instructions. She becomes distracted, argues about the boat moving, and says the test is “not fair.”
When a friend nearby appears to distract her, officers tell him he is interfering with the investigation and order him to move away. McKenna then asks to call her father, saying she is 18 and can do what she wants.
One officer tells her that the choice is hers, but if she denies the tasks, that is her decision.
A Boating Under The Influence Arrest
The officers finally place McKenna under arrest for operating a vessel while intoxicated.
When they tell her to turn around and put her hands behind her back, she asks, “What did I do?” An officer tells her she is under arrest for operating a vessel while intoxicated.
She immediately pushes back, saying she was not driving the jet ski and only had her hands on the steering area because she was in front. Officers tell her they are not going to debate it.
McKenna also points out that other people on the water were probably impaired too. One officer does not deny that, but tells her they saw her operating and saw the jet ski flip.
That is another important lesson in the footage. “Other people were doing it too” may feel true, and sometimes it may even be true, but it rarely helps when officers are dealing with what they personally observed.
The officers then transport her to a boat ramp, where she continues asking why she was arrested and says she did not do anything. She repeatedly asks for her phone and her mother.
One officer calls her mother, Linda, and explains that McKenna has been placed under arrest in Boca Raton after being on the water at Lake Boca. When McKenna speaks to her mother, she becomes emotional and insists she did not drive the jet ski.
Her mother tells her to calm down and warns that she is going to make things worse for herself.
It is one of the more human parts of the footage. The legal side is serious, but the personal side is obvious too: an 18-year-old realizing the situation has moved far beyond a messy day with friends.
Refusing The Breath Test
After the arrest, an officer reads McKenna Florida’s implied consent warning and asks her to submit to a lawful breath test to determine alcohol content.
She asks if she can “plead the Fifth” and whether she can get a lawyer. Officers tell her she needs to answer yes or no and that a lawyer is not available at that moment for the breath test decision.
At first, she appears to agree to take the test, but once officers set it up and explain how to blow into the machine, she changes course. She says she will take it if they have patience, then tells them they can take her to jail.
When an officer asks directly whether she is refusing, she eventually says she is.
The Arrest Cam host later summarizes the result: McKenna was charged with boating under the influence and refusing to provide a breath sample.
By the end, McKenna says she will “lawyer up” and fight the case, still insisting she was not driving the jet ski. The channel’s host adds that the case could not be found in the Palm Beach County court records system, leaving the final outcome unclear.
What the footage does show clearly is how quickly a carefree boating day can turn into something much more serious.
A jet ski flips. Officers ask questions. A young woman argues, panics, refuses a breath test, and leaves in custody.
It is not just a boating story. It is the kind of first adult lesson many people learn the hard way: on the water, in public, and especially around law enforcement, a bad decision can become official very fast.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
