City of Austin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERelease Date:
Contact: Public Information Office 512-974-5017 Email
APD is aware of a video that is circulating involving the arrest of 40-year-old Rosalinda Nuno Trevino for multiple hazardous traffic violations.
Regarding Case# 20-1860985, on July 4, 2020, Austin Police Department Motor Unit Officers were riding their motorcycles behind a protest march to keep people safe from vehicular traffic. Ms. Trevino was driving a white SUV behind these motor officers. Ms. Trevino began to follow the officers very closely with her vehicle and honk her horn continuously. She drove through empty parking spaces and attempted to move her vehicle around the officers’ motorcycles. Officers told Ms. Trevino to stay behind their motorcycles to ensure the safety of the people marching. Ms. Trevino then stopped her vehicle, ran up to an officer and requested his badge number, which the officer provided.
At the intersection of 2nd Street and Congress Avenue, Ms. Trevino started to honk the vehicle horn a second time and drove through a red light. Ms. Trevino then stopped her vehicle again and approached officers. Ms. Trevino was placed under arrest for the multiple hazardous traffic violations to include, running a red light, failure to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians, improper use of a horn and failure to maintain an assured clear distance. As a crowd began to form, officers moved Ms. Trevino to the front of an officer’s vehicle to conduct a search before transporting her to jail. While conducting the search, he advised Ms. Trevino that a female officer was not available. He conducted the search in front of a police vehicle where a vehicle camera could document and at least one other officer was present, as required by APD policy.
Full APD Policy: https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Police/General%20Orders.pdf
APD Frisk/Search Training Video: https://youtu.be/XgdZBwQ-0Og
Portions of APD Policy have been copied below with highlighted explanations for your convenience:
306.3.1 SEARCH PROTOCOL
Nothing in this order supersedes officer safety tactics.
(a) Officers will conduct person searches with dignity and courtesy.
(b) Officers will conduct property searches in a manner that returns the condition of the property to its pre-search status as nearly as reasonably practicable.
(c) Officers should attempt to acquire keys to locked property when a search is anticipated, and the time and effort required to gain the keys makes it a practicable option.
(d) It is the responsibility of each individual officer to search a prisoner for weapons or contraband anytime he gains custody of that prisoner, regardless of whether the prisoner was previously searched by another officer.
(e) When safety permits:
1. Officers should explain to the person being searched the reason for the search and how the search will be conducted.
2. When practical, an officer of the same gender should be called to the scene when officers believe the subject is concealing items in a sensitive area, such as evidence or narcotics in the groin, buttocks, or breast areas. This does not apply to items that pose an immediate threat to officer safety.
3. If a subject requests a search by an officer of the same gender, an attempt should be made to have a same gender officer conduct the search.
4. If a same gender officer is unavailable, the search should be conducted in front of a Mobile Audio Video (MAV) recording system, if available, or a second officer should be present.
5. If the gender of the individual needing to be searched comes into question, officers should respectfully inquire as to whether the individual identifies as transgender. When an individual self-identifies as transgender, officers will not question this identity absent articulable, compelling reasons, nor will an officer inquire about intimate details of an individual's anatomy to determine gender. Officers needing to search a person who has disclosed that, or the officer recognizes by prior knowledge, the individual is Transgender, Intersex, and/or Fender Non-Binary/Gender Non-Conforming (TIGN), should, when practicable, conduct the search based on the gender with which the individual identifies. (For example, a Female-to-Male individual should, when practicable, be searched by a male officer, or by a female officer who conducts an opposite gender search. A Male-to-Female individual should, when practicable, be searched by a female officer, or by a male officer who conducts an opposite gender search).
6. Officers will use the backside of their hands and fingers to frisk/search sensitive areas of the opposite gender to include the breast, crotch, and buttocks.
306.6 SEARCH INCIDENT TO ARREST
The general authority to search incident to a lawful custodial arrest is not qualified or limited by the type of arrest. Objects of the search are weapons, evidence, and/or means of escape.
(a) Persons:
1. When officers make a lawful arrest, they are permitted to conduct a contemporaneous search of the arrestee. Such a search safeguards the arresting officer and others nearby from harm while ensuring that the arrestee will not discard or destroy evidence.
2. It is entirely reasonable for arresting officers to search the area where the defendant might reach in order to grab a weapon or evidence.
306.9 FRISK (PAT-DOWN) FOR WEAPONS
A frisk is a mere pat-down of the outer clothing, area, vehicle or container to which a detained person may have immediate access. The purpose of a limited weapons frisk after an investigatory stop is not to discover crime, but to allow the officer to pursue the investigation without fear of violence. An officer does not need to be absolutely certain that an individual is armed; the issue is whether a reasonably prudent person would justifiably believe that he or others were in danger.
(a) Persons:
1. A frisk is a limited patting of the outer surfaces of a person's clothing in an attempt to find weapons. A frisk can only be used by officers when they justifiably stop someone and have a reasonable fear for their safety, the safety of the public, or when a cautious and prudent officer under the same or similar circumstances would conduct a pat-down.
2. Normally, officers cannot put their hands under the suspect's outer clothing until they feel something they reasonably believe is a weapon. If the outer clothing is too bulky to allow officers to decide if a weapon is concealed underneath, outer clothing such as overcoats and jackets may be opened to allow a pat down of the inner clothing, such as shirts and trousers.
3. Packages, purses, briefcases and other containers may be frisked during the stop.
4. The scope of a protective frisk is limited to persons and places within arm's reach of a concealed weapon or toward which the subject might lunge.