ALAMO HEIGHTS, Texas – Award-winning reporter Jonathan Cotto used to be nearing the top of a 10-hour force house from visiting circle of relatives out of state on Sept. 4 when he used to be pulled over close to Alamo Heights High School.
The late-night forestall, which used to be recorded through an Alamo Heights police dashboard digicam and body-worn digicam, presentations the officer informing Cotto that his registration decal used to be expired.
After Cotto knowledgeable the officer he had not too long ago finished his state inspection and used to be in the method of having his registration mailed, the officer issued him a caution.
But the four-minute forestall used to be no longer with out incident, because the officer used her digital ticketing tool to take a photograph of Cotto with out first explaining what she used to be doing.
“What’s the picture for?” requested Cotto after the officer had captured his symbol at the tool.
“Just to say you were the one driving when I stopped you,” the officer replied.
A probe from Investigates printed the picture is one of probably 1000’s taken of motorists through AHPD in the previous two years. The pictures are stored off-site through a third-party dealer, AHPD officers verify.
AHPD’s coverage states, in phase, that the pictures are used as identity for potential suspects concerned in crimes that experience but to be reported.
Cotto, who used to be no longer cited for a contravention all through his site visitors forestall, known as the coverage “heartbreaking.”
“What we’ve seen across our country and where we’ve been as a country, I think police departments should do everything in their power to work with the community they serve. And taking photos of people is something that’s very antagonizing and triggering,” mentioned Cotto.
‘That is some hoaky, 1984 stuff’
Rebecca Webber, a Central Texas civil rights lawyer, known as AHPD’s coverage “constitutionally suspect.”
“That is a few hoaky, ‘1984′ stuff,” said Webber, referencing the dystopian novel by George Orwell that touches on topics including mass surveillance.
“I believe that he was subjected to an unconstitutional search,” said Webber, who pointed out that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
“Is this really helping the community, or is this just setting them up for a huge lawsuit? I have never seen a policy written this broadly,” said Webber.
Webber said she believed the officer in Cotto’s site visitors forestall violated AHPD’s coverage through no longer giving Cotto the risk to refuse to have his photograph taken.
The coverage states if violators object to their {photograph} being taken officials is not going to pressure the problem and can as a substitute record the refusal at the quotation.
Days after Cotto’s site visitors forestall, Investigates asked a replica of all images taken of motorists through Alamo Heights police because the get started of September 2021.
AHPD officers mentioned it could value $2,800 plus unknown further prices for the dep. to obtain and procedure for free up the ten,690 quotation data.
AHPD officers have no longer mentioned what number of of the citations come with pictures of motorists, confirming to each and every quotation would have to be reviewed personally.
AHPD officers declined to make Chief Richard Pruitt to be had for an interview for this tale.
A spokeswoman for Tyler Technologies, the third-party dealer that shops and maintains the pictures, mentioned AHPD determines how the accrued information is used.
“The city of Alamo Heights is a long-time client of our public safety software solutions. While we provide the technology, how data and information are stored and utilized is determined by each agency to meet their needs and processes,” mentioned Karen Shields, Tyler Technology’s Senior Media Relations Specialist.
What are different San Antonio-area regulation enforcement companies doing?
Both the San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, our subject’s two greatest regulation enforcement companies, showed to that they don’t have a convention or coverage of photographing motorists who’re given a caution or quotation.
Castle Hills PD has {a photograph} coverage identical to Alamo Heights, carried out, in phase, in order that judges can correctly identify a motorist as soon as she or he comes to courtroom, the dep.’s leader showed to .
“It has happened that a friend or family member will use an ID that isn’t theirs that strongly resemble someone else and then we discover that the person on the ID wasn’t even in the vehicle. We have even found on one occasion that a female individual was using her deceased sisters ID to avoid being arrested because she had outstanding warrants,” Chief Esteban Zuniga mentioned by means of e mail.
Zuniga defended taking images of drivers handiest given a caution, declaring that the caution remains to be a courtroom record and is used in annual summaries together with racial profiling reviews.
Universal City PD and Live Oak PD {photograph} motorists, however handiest in circumstances when the motive force does no longer have a motive force’s license and his or her identification will want to be verified in courtroom, the ones companies showed.
A motorist in Cibolo raised identical issues about questions requested to him through police and his image being taken all through a site visitors forestall there, in an interview with in 2019.
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