Texas police department apologizes for pulling gun on family over mistaken license plate

A Texas police chief has issued an apology after at least one member of the Frisco Police Department pulled a gun on a family during an erroneous traffic stop.  

Frisco Police Chief David Shilson released a statement on Friday addressing the events, which happened the morning of July 23 after a family of four from Little Rock, Arkansas left their hotel and headed to a basketball tournament in Grapevine, Texas.

According to the release, a Frisco officer saw the Dodge Charger with out-of-state license plates and decided to run the plate numbers, due to what they say was a rash of “recent burglaries and vehicle thefts in which Chargers are frequently stolen.”

When the officer searched the license plate in her computer, however, she entered the abbreviation for Arizona instead of Arkansas.

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When she could not find the correct registration, police “believed that the vehicle was possibly stolen,” according to the statement.

Operating on that assumption, officers categorized the situation as a “high-risk traffic stop,” and pulled the car over on the Dallas North Tollway. They then ordered all the passengers, including two children sitting in the back, out of the car and waited for backup, said the statement.

'Why is my baby in cuffs?'

Bodycam footage also released on Friday shows police ordering everyone in the car to put their hands out the windows. The driver, a mom, and her sixth grade son are instructed to get out and walk backwards as one officer trains his gun on the car. The driver tells police the other two passengers are her husband and a nephew. Between two videos shared by the department, the mother and father can both be heard multiple times telling officers that the family had been on the way to a basketball tournament and were confused by the situation.

Clearly upset, the driver also protests when officers cuff her young son as he stands outside the car, saying: “Please don’t let them do that to my baby. This is very traumatizing. Why is my baby in cuffs?”

At one point, the driver informs police of a licensed handgun in the glove compartment of the car, to which the officer pointing a gun at the family says: “If you reach in that car, you may get shot so be careful. Do not reach in the car.”

A police sergeant arrives and, a little over 15 minutes after the stop began, informs the officer who entered the license plate that she had made an error.

“AR is Arkansas, correct?” she asks, before her colleague informs her that she actually ran the plates in Arizona, to which she responds, “that’s on me.”

'We made a mistake'

Police were then ordered to “stand down,” according to the PD statement, and officers inform the family of the mistake. In that moment, the driver’s husband and father of the 6^th grade boy becomes emotional, saying: “It could have went all wrong for us,” before breaking down into tears.

Officers on the scene apologize repeatedly in the footage, saying in part: “We’re so sorry that happened like this. We had no intent on doing this, you know?” another officer tells the family. “We’re humans as well and we make mistakes.”

Shilson echoed this sentiment in his subsequent statement, saying, “We made a mistake. Our department will not hide from its mistakes. Instead, we will learn from them.”

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The department initiated an incident review the same day, which is still ongoing. According to the statement, “A preliminary assessment provided guidance reemphasizing certain training points to include ensuring the accuracy of information entered by officers.”

“I apologized on behalf of our department and assured them that we will hold ourselves accountable and provide transparency through the process,” said Shilson via the statement. “This incident does not reflect the high standard of service that our officers provide on a daily basis to our residents, businesses and visitors.”