When a misinformed cop is holding your family at gunpoint it’s best to cooperate slowly and calmly now, then lawyer up later. That’s exactly what a family from Little Rock did. That’s in Arkansas, not Arizona. The police in Frisco, Texas, are calling the confusion “a learning experience.”
Cop ran wrong state
One cop in Texas is learning that there’s actually a difference between Arkansas and Arizona. One that mattered to a family traveling to a basketball tournament in Dallas. We’ll learn just how much it mattered when the settlement is concluded.
You can expect a settlement because lawyers for Texas municipalities are smart enough to know there’s no defense in court when the officer admits the mistake. That’s actually a huge point in her favor with the internal investigation. As soon as she knew she was wrong, she took responsibility for it.
The cop wasn’t the only one with a lesson to learn from this incident. The general public needs to know that even if you are Black, staying calm and doing exactly as instructed is the key to preventing accidental escalation of an already tense encounter. Cooperate first and complain all you want about it later, after everyone is safe.
“We made a mistake.” —Frisco, Texas, police chief apologizes to a family that was pulled over in a “high-risk” traffic stop. The car came up stolen when a cop typed AZ instead of AR & ran the car’s Arkansas tags as Arizona tags. https://t.co/Hmdk5R6WBlpic.twitter.com/kyDKvU7CGQ
— Charles T (@ChuckyT3) July 30, 2023
From their side, the police thought the car was stolen. Even so, holding a sixth grader at gunpoint and cuffing them without knowing the story seems a little excessive. That’s the part lawyers love to fight over and they will. At least, nobody was harmed.
Police aren’t saying what the probable cause was for the cop to run the out-of-state license plate attached to a Dodge Charger but when she did, she ran it for Arizona, not Arkansas. Nobody is mentioning exactly how the query came back.
Either a plate with that number was reported stolen in Arizona, or was at least a valid plate number, or it may have come back as “no such number.” If it was the no number one, that should have flagged it for the officer of a discrepancy somewhere. Texas isn’t talking.
High risk stop
Police are justifying all the weaponry aimed at middle schoolers on the assumption the “car was possibly stolen.” That’s why they engaged in a “high-risk traffic stop” on the Dallas North Tollway, with “officers drawing their guns and ordering a mother and her sixth-grade son to exit the vehicle.”
Thankfully, mom knows how to actually listen when given cop instructions, without getting mouthy back. “Police said the family ‘may get shot‘ if they reached into the car.” That’s because the woman’s husband, sitting in the passenger seat, admitted right away that he was a concealed carry permit holder and had a weapon in the glove compartment.
The female driver “repeatedly told police that they owned the car.” Things fell apart for the department when the cop quipped the woman should “go have a conversation with Arizona” about her registration.
We’ve made a mistake’: Police mistakenly pull over family headed to a basketball tournament with gun draw
The Frisco, Texas, police chief issued an apology on Friday after a family from Little Rock, Arkansas, who were headed to a basketball tournament in Grapevine, was… pic.twitter.com/Gx9at7fOoq
— LockharTVMedia (@LockharTVMedia) July 30, 2023
Confused, the driver “corrects her to say the plates are from Arkansas.” That’s about when the cuffs clicked around the wrists of her sixth grade son. “This is very traumatizing,” she said of the situation.
Nearly 20 minutes pass before other officers on scene let the officer know that the check of the license plate was done in the wrong state. “For real?” the responsible female cop asks. Another officer tells his female colleague, “They were run out of Arizona.” Immediately, the officer approached the family and bravely admitted, “It looks like I made a mistake. So I ran it AZ for Arizona, instead of AR — and that’s what happened. That’s on me.”
Her chief is doing his best to soothe things over but knows it’s going to mean his head on a plate eventually. “I’ve spoken with the family. I empathize with them and completely understand why they’re upset. I apologized on behalf of our department and assured them that we will hold ourselves accountable and provide transparency through the process.“
