TACOMA, Wash. - A veteran Tacoma Police officer is the subject of an internal affairs investigation following an incident caught on tape at the Port of Tacoma on Tuesday.

Video shot by a University of Puget Sound student, which is now circulating on the internet site YouTube, shows the officer demanding the student turn off his camera. The student was there to document the controversial onloading of Stryker military equipment to a ship bound for the Iraq war.

In the video, the officer asks the student why he wants to videotape an area near the Port of Tacoma. When the student answers he plans to use the footage for an "independent" news organization, the officer replies: "No, you're not. If you're going to do that, you're going to tell us that, you know where you're going to sit? On the other side of that light down there. How about that?"

The video includes inserted commentary with claims the right to photograph a public event were improperly denied.

From the tape, it appears the same officer demanded the student show the officer how to turn off the camera saying, "you better show me before it gets broken."

Tacoma Police Department spokesman Mark Fulghum said the investigation was opened Thursday following a complaint made on the department's web site. No other details were immediately available.

KING 5 will have more on the story today (Friday) including an exclusive interview with the student.