A family is seeking justice after an Ohio police officer searched his 5-year-old's father's pockets during a routine traffic stop.
Brandon Wilson said he was driving his Volkswagen SUV across the street to his mother's house when he was pulled over by Parma police around 9:20 p.m. on Dec. 26. Woio Reported.
He said officers stopped him because his plates were expired and his front tinted windows were too dark.
Wilson, whose son was also a passenger in the car, said the officer opened the driver's side door and questioned him before telling him to get out of the car. He obeyed, and so did his son.
Video recorded by the boy's uncle shows Wilson with his son by his side and his hands raised as officers search him.
One of the officers is then seen bending over and searching the five-year-old's pockets, his hands in the air.
“Your father didn't give you anything, right?” a police officer can be heard asking the young man.
The upset father tells his son to put down his hands and stand by his uncle's side once the search is over, but the child refuses to move and doesn't seem to know what to do. Officers then directed the boy away from the vehicle.
“My son is here and it goes into his pocket,” Wilson told WOIO.
“I thought, 'I shouldn't have touched him in the first place,' so I looked for my car and there was nothing in it.”
Wilson said she complied with all police commands during the traffic stop to keep her son calm and knew he was doing nothing wrong.
But the concerned father said the incident appeared to have upset the child.
“He's using toys to recreate it. That's not cool. They could have approached things in a completely different way,” he said. “The officers didn't have to touch him. I don't care what you guys do to me.”
The father, furious, is asking Parma police to launch an internal investigation into the traffic stop.
According to WOIO, Wilson believes police did not have a legitimate reason to search his car for anything illegal and used a dog to search his car after telling them there were no drugs in the car. They said they searched for drugs.
The department confirmed that the traffic stop was due to “an expired license plate and tinted windows.”
“As the K-9 officer assisted in the traffic stop and walked the dog around the vehicle, the K-9 alerted the vehicle on the passenger side, where the 5-year-old was seated,” the department said in a statement last week. said. “The adult driver was charged and released, but his vehicle was not towed.”
On Friday, police released A subsequent statement said the K-9 is trained to smell for drugs and that if the dog was alerted to something on the passenger side, officers would be required to search all occupants.
Police said the officer never asked the boy to put his hands in the air, and the officer told the boy he could put his hands down.
“The interaction with the child was brief, professional and focused on ensuring the welfare of the child,” police said.
“Our decision to conduct this search was influenced by the prevalence of tragic incidents in which children are harmed or killed due to accidental contact with hazardous materials,” the release states. has been done.
“Children in Ohio and across the country are overdosing on drugs that are left inadvertently within their reach. This is a risk that our staff strives to prevent. In this case, Our review process confirmed that the officers acted reasonably, professionally and with the safety of the child as their primary concern.”
But the hard-working father wants to be treated fairly and has raised his children to respect police officers rather than fear them.
“I own my home. I pay taxes,” he said. “They looked at me and thought, 'He looks like he's up to no good.'”
Wilson and his family then hired attorneys from the El Khatib Law Firm, which said they plan to “vigorously audit and investigate all aspects of this case.”
“The search for a 5-year-old child is particularly egregious,” the company said in a statement.
“While police claim this was for the child's 'safety', the facts paint a different picture. A frightened child raises his hand, even though there is no evidence of danger or controlled substances. , they are being searched unnecessarily.'' This was not about safety, it was an abuse of power that caused unnecessary trauma to innocent children. ”
