A federal jury has ruled against Bexar County in a case that is raising new questions about how law enforcement uses license plate readers, after a Texas man said his plate was flagged in southern Bexar County and that led to a traffic stop and search.<\/p>\n
Alek Schott said he was pulled over in March 2022 on Interstate 35 while driving home from a work trip and was detained for more than an hour. The deputy told Schott on body camera, \u201cThe only reason I’m stopping you is when I was watching over there, you were drifting over that fog line, but I just want to make sure everything’s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schott said he was trying to get home to his family when he was detained on the roadside for 76 minutes. \u201cI was traveling back home, trying to get back to my family and kids, and spent 76 minutes, detained on the side of the road for doing nothing wrong.,\u201d Schott said.<\/p>\n
Schott said he did not realize there was a broader surveillance network of license plate readers tracking drivers. His dash camera captured video from just before the stop, and from that angle the alleged drift is not obvious.<\/p>\n
After the stop, Schott said he was told to get into the patrol car while the deputy issued a warning. For more than 10 minutes, the deputy questioned him about the purpose of his trip and asked whether there were illegal drugs or large amounts of cash in his car. The deputy then said he had reason to believe there could be something inside Schott\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n
Schott refused to consent to a search, and a K-9 was brought in and alerted. After about 25 minutes of searching, nothing was found.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had many arguments with them, and they said, if you don’t like our policies and practices, sue us in court. And so, we’re here today,\u201d Schott said.<\/p>\n
Schott\u2019s attorneys argued the stop and what followed violated his Fourth Amendment rights. A federal jury agreed and awarded Schott $76 for the 76 minutes he was detained.<\/p>\n
Christie Hebert, an attorney with the Institute for Justice Texas Office, called the verdict a broader precedent. \u201cThis victory is a victory that other plaintiffs and other defendants can stand upon, and point to the fact that the sheriff’s office violates the Fourth Amendment,\u201d Hebert said.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for Schott said the case was part of a larger system that used license plate data to identify drivers and then look for a reason to stop them. Jeff Rowes, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice Texas Office, said, \u201cThat fundamental constitutional problem is what the jury said no to. And if it is repeated across the state or across the country, the Institute for justice will be there to fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schott\u2019s attorneys said they are asking the court to issue an injunction to stop Bexar County from using these types of traffic stops to search drivers.<\/p>\n
The Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office said it would not comment on active lawsuits and referred questions to the district attorney\u2019s office. A response from the district attorney\u2019s office was pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal jury has ruled against Bexar County in a case that is raising new questions about how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-451667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}