{"slug": "driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches", "title": "Driver wins $76 after ALPR led to bogus traffic stop, drug searches", "summary": "A federal jury in Texas ruled in favor of Alek Schott, awarding him $76 — one dollar for each minute he was detained — after he sued Bexar County and its sheriff over a March 2022 traffic stop that deputy Joel Babb admitted was pretextual and was actually triggered by automated license plate reader data shared through a law enforcement WhatsApp group. Schott, a Houston oilfield supplies salesman, had been pulled over for alleged \"lane drifting\" in Bexar County after a tip from a person named \"Kiki\" at a Laredo federal fusion center flagged his one-day turnaround trip to Carrizo Springs as suspicious. Schott said he filed a complaint with the Sheriff's Office, which found no violation and told him to sue, which he did.", "body_md": "A federal jury in Texas recently ruled in favor of a man who sued Bexar County and its sheriff over allegations that the agency ran what the plaintiff’s attorneys called an “unconstitutional traffic stop scheme” enabled by “AI-powered” license plate readers.\n\nLate last month, plaintiff Alek Schott of Houston was awarded $76, one dollar for each minute that he was detained. (Schott asked for this exact amount as symbolic compensation.)\n\n“After the stop, I filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office because I knew what happened to me was wrong,” Schott said in a [statement](https://ij.org/press-release/federal-jury-strikes-down-texas-sheriffs-surveillance-driven-traffic-stop-program/) after his win. “The department reviewed it, told me they didn’t see any violation, and said if I had a problem with it, I should sue them. So I did.”\n\n## Suspicion\n\nIn his [civil complaint](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28725391-govuscourtstxwd117274310810/), Schott outlined a wild tale.\n\nSchott had been driving his pickup truck home from a work trip to Carrizo Springs, in the southwestern part of the state, back in March 2022. While in Bexar County, which covers the area around San Antonio, a police officer pulled Schott over for “lane drifting.”\n\nThe father of two was questioned by deputy Joel Babb, who admitted later that the stated reason for the traffic stop was bogus.\n\nThe *real* reason for the stop was that Babb had received a tip via a law enforcement WhatsApp group. It came from someone named “[Kiki](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28729349-govuscourtstxwd11727431081193/#document/p139/a2831061),” who allegedly worked with a federal fusion center in Laredo. Kiki apparently had near real-time access to automated license plate reader data.\n\nAccording to Babb’s deposition, Kiki told him that Schott’s truck had made a potentially suspicious “one-day turnaround.” That is, Schott drove all the way from Houston, stopped in Carrizo Springs for one night, and then returned home to Houston the next day. (Schott sells oilfield supplies.) To authorities, this was apparently enough to make one look like a smuggling suspect.\n\nAfter seeing the WhatsApp message, Babb waited for Schott’s vehicle and pulled it over once it passed his location. During the traffic stop, Babb said that he was on the “Criminal Interdiction Unit” looking for “human smuggling, drug smuggling, and all those things like that.”", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches", "canonical_source": "https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches/", "published_at": "2026-10-08 19:42:30+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-08 19:49:55.915866+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-ethics", "computer-vision"], "entities": ["Alek Schott", "Bexar County", "Joel Babb", "Kiki", "Laredo federal fusion center", "Houston", "Carrizo Springs", "Texas"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/driver-wins-76-after-alpr-led-to-bogus-traffic-stop-drug-searches.jsonld"}}