A Jury Just Told Texas: Plate Readers Plus Fake Stops Are Unconstitutional

On September 28 a federal jury in San Antonio found Bexar County liable for turning mass license-plate surveillance into a pipeline of pretextual traffic stops and warrantless searches. Alek Schott — a Houston father with no criminal record — was flagged by cameras for an ordinary oilfield work trip, pulled over on I-35 for a fog-line drift that dashcam showed never happened, held 76 minutes, interrogated in a patrol car, and searched after a K-9 alert. Deputies found nothing. The jury awarded him $76 — one dollar per minute. He asked for nothing more.

The Institute for Justice proved a pattern, not a one-off: plates logged statewide, anonymous WhatsApp tips from fusion-center sources, invented violations as cover, then consent-or-dog searches. That is the Fourth Amendment problem with ALPR grids — the same architecture towns are racing to buy under brands like Flock. Watching every car does not create probable cause. Inventing a stop to fish for it is still a seizure.

Bodily autonomy has a roadside twin: the right to travel without the state manufacturing a reason to empty your truck. IJ will seek an injunction. Every sheriff running the same playbook has been put on notice.

Sources: https://ij.org/press-release/federal-jury-strikes-down-texas-sheriffs-surveillance-driven-traffic-stop-program/ https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/texas-traffic-stop-search-bexar-county-21079297.php