Bexar County found liable for unconstitutional police surveillance scheme

A federal jury has found Bexar County, Texas, liable for violating Fourth Amendment rights through an unconstitutional criminal interdiction program. The verdict follows a lawsuit filed by Alek Schott, who was detained in March 2022 near San Antonio.

Schott was initially stopped by a Bexar County Sheriff’s Office deputy for allegedly drifting lanes, but dashcam footage and subsequent testimony indicated the stop was a pretext. During the encounter, deputies interrogated Schott and requested consent to search his vehicle. When he refused, a K-9 unit was summoned. Although deputies later claimed to find trace amounts of drugs in written reports, body camera footage showed no such evidence.

The lawsuit, represented by the Institute for Justice, revealed that the unit used traffic stops as a method to conduct searches for drugs and human smuggling without sufficient legal cause. The jury concluded that the systematic use of these stops constituted a violation of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.