Texas jury awards driver $76 after AI license plate reader triggered bogus traffic stop and dog-signaled drug search
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Source: arstechnica.com ↗
"An AI-powered camera flagged Alek's plate. An anonymous law enforcement agent decided his completely ordinary trip looked suspicious. And a deputy went out and found a violation that never happened."
A federal jury in Texas awarded Alek Schott exactly $76 in late September 2026 — one dollar per minute of detention — after a Bexar County deputy pulled him over on a fabricated lane-drifting charge. The real trigger was an "AI-powered" Flock Safety license plate reader that flagged Schott's truck for a "one-day turnaround" trip: he had driven from Houston to Carrizo Springs for a work night and driven back. An anonymous tipster named "Kiki," apparently operating out of a federal fusion center in Laredo, passed the plate data via a law enforcement WhatsApp group. The deputy admitted the lane-drifting pretext was false.
During the 76-minute stop, a drug dog alerted on the truck. Bodycam footage later showed the handler signaling the dog before the alert. Officers found nothing. Schott filed an internal complaint; the sheriff's office told him if he had a problem with it, he should sue them. He did. His attorneys at the Institute for Justice say they will now seek an injunction barring Bexar County from using baseless stops as a vehicle for warrantless searches, and push the precedent statewide.