Jan. 8—Two Rio Arriba County sisters have filed lawsuits against the city of Española, contending they were subjected to an illegal traffic stop after a surveillance camera mistakenly flagged their car as one that had been stolen in Rio Rancho.
Española police officers pulled the sisters over July 23 on Calle Duran after they had passed through an intersection equipped with a Flock Safety camera, which incorrectly flagged their car’s license plate as belonging to a stolen vehicle, according to the lawsuits.
The vehicle had a license plate one digit different from the stolen vehicle, car owner Jaclynn Gonzales says in her lawsuit, filed Jan. 3 in state District Court. The plate number ended in 2, which the camera incorrectly read as 7, according to the complaint.
Gonzales is 21. Her 12-year-old sister, identified by the initials “DD” in a complaint filed by her mother, Janice Gonzales, was a passenger in the vehicle. In their separate lawsuits, the sisters said officers pulled the vehicle over and handcuffed them before placing them in the back of police vehicles prior to discovering the error.
Jaclynn Gonzales told one of the officers their mother lived nearby and asked if he would call her to come pick up the 12-year-old, her lawsuit says.
Instead, officers handcuffed the girl and put her in the back of a different police vehicle, according to the complaint.
The sisters are seeking an unspecified amount of damages, plus compensation for personal injuries including “anxiety, fear, worry and restriction of movement.”
Sheri Raphaelson, the sisters’ attorney, filed a similar complaint on behalf of a different plaintiff in April.
That lawsuit says Adam Pacheco was forced to exit his vehicle and kneel in the road with his hands on his head after he was mistakenly targeted as a suspect in an armed robbery.
In his case, an Española police officer determined the vehicle used in a robbery was a white Toyota Tacoma pickup with four doors, stickers on the back window and a New Mexico chile-themed license plate. The officer then viewed surveillance video of a nearby intersection and spotted Pacheco’s vehicle — a white four-door pickup with one sticker on the back and a turquoise license plate — passing through, according to the lawsuit.
Despite the differences in the two vehicles, the lawsuit contends, the officer used license plate information taken from the surveillance video to create an alert, providing details about Pacheco’s truck, which was disseminated to other law enforcement agencies.
Pacheco — then 17 and an honor roll student at Pojoaque High School — was driving home from school when he was pulled over by a state police officer based on the faulty information, the lawsuit says.
Raphaelson said traffic surveillance cameras can lead to policing errors when they malfunction or when a human operator enters faulty information, or both.
“Both ways have happened and have resulted in improper traffic stops with innocent people being held at gunpoint,” she said.
The city of Española did not respond to a phone message seeking comment Monday. Española Police Chief Mizel A. Garcia also did not respond to a phone message and email seeking information about the number and location of the cameras.
Flock Safety did not respond to a call and email seeking comment.
According to the company’s website, the cost of the cameras varies depending on how they will be used. The company markets the devices to housing associations, schools, residential property managers and the health care industry as well as to police.
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