A Texas man is suing a sheriff's deputy and Dallas County after he says his personal information was broadcast to over 100 people when the deputy livestreamed his traffic stop on TikTok.
Torry Osby, a Tarrant County man, is suing sheriff's deputy Francisco Castillo and Dallas County after Castillo livestreamed his traffic stop of Osby on TikTok. The incident happened on March 2, 2021, when Osby was stopped for speeding. Unaware that he was being filmed, his lawyers contend that Castillo only pulled Osby over to broadcast it on TikTok, particularly since Osby claims he had set his cruise control to keep him below the speed limit. In fact, Osby only became aware of the incident when Castillo's followers reached out to him after seeing his full driver's license on the stream.
It's worth noting that Texas is a one-party consent state, meaning people can be recorded so long as at least one of the parties consents to it, so Osby's permission was not needed. However, his lawyers say the issues were Castillo abusing government powers and broadcasting (not just recording) a person's information — one who was ultimately not charged with any offense. As his lawyers put it:
Imagine an officer pulling over driver on traffic stop, and then loudly proclaiming to people walking down the sidewalk who the driver is, when he was born, where he lives, and his driver license number. This shocking invasion of privacy is essentially what occurred in this case, only to over hundred people on the internet.
Allegedly, this is not the first time Castillo has used his law enforcement work for social media clout, though it appears he has since locked down his TikTok, disallowing all comments on posts. Castillo received an unpaid two-day suspension for the incident.
Two day suspension?
If he was a teacher, he'd be FIRED!
Maybe that's because cops, who only need a high-school diploma, make more money than teachers, who need a college degree.
I've been practicing police psychology for nearly 20 years, and one thing I find interesting is how we see antisocial behavior in society and we call for improvements in mental health, yet cops who are subjected to ongoing traumas and begin to show antisocial behaviors and we call out corruption. There's bad apples in every profession, of course, but you can't turn on the news without seeing some sort of sex scandal involving a teacher or coach and their students, and we talk about their being underpaid; yet with cops we talk about corruption.
What alarms me most is that we come to Fstoppers to share in something we have in common and something that unites us...photography. Yet even here we're being spoon fed the divisiveness not even related to photography. Fstoppers needs to leave that garbage to Fox or CNN and leave photography a place where we can find SOMETHING to be united over.
And this is related to photography, how?
12 years ago a motorcyclist was arrested for videotaping his own traffic stop with a much different outcome. I'm curious to see what will happen with this, now that the shoe is on the other foot.
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/wrongful-charges-dropped-against-mot...