My grandson is horrified by the police now.
I was left on the side of the road with no keys
and it was dark and I was by myself.
I just knew I was going to die.
Well, you took all of you took the keys?
No, she went by herself, man.
It was abandoned right here.
You just not going to be.
We're going to we're going to deal with this.
We're going to deal with this, brother.
We're going to deal with this.
What's your name?
That cell phone
video shows just one of thousands of encounters.
The Brookside, Alabama Police Department used to generate revenue for itself.
Drivers are harassed, sometimes arrested,
and usually see their cars towed away.
Police have left families and small children stranded on the side of the road.
The victims of Brooke Sides policing for profit scheme
often live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to fight back.
Officers look for any reason to pull over drivers and sometimes just make one up.
I know I had my turn signal, like I said, when he pulled me over.
I was in shock because I didn't think he was pulling me over.
He said that he was pulling me over because my lights weren't on.
So the police pulled me over because they said I was tailgating
when in reality I was just following my boyfriend.
But he said, well, we're too close.
I first saw the police car on the opposite side of the freeway.
He got on the side of the freeway while I was and he followed me
all the way down to where I was pulled over, right down here.
And I said, For what? What did I do?
Is there anything that I did that was wrong?
He had his hand on his holster. He said,
You're casting your lights.
And I was like, didn't even know what casting the lights wasn't
like part of my life. What are you talking about?
Brooke Sides traffic stops are engineered to tow cars away
for the financial benefit of the town.
And a private towing company, for example,
Officers regularly refuse to accept driver's proof of insurance.
I try to show him the State Farm Insurance card that I had on my phone,
and he said that he wasn't going to accept that, not I wouldn't
accept the paperwork that my wife showed him with my policy number on it.
And I guess that wasn't good enough
when he told me I didn't have insurance on my vehicle.
I'm like those. You're kidding me.
I do this for a living.
I work for an auto insurance company now for 23 years.
Often the tow truck pulls up just seconds after the stop.
In this thing, I knew our
tow truck flew by me.
I flew by.
I didn't think anything of it.
I'm thinking he going somewhere.
He bad back so quick.
And I said, Well, what is going on?
He said, We told you as a full way.
I love me, my wife and my kids on the side of the road.
So when he pulled me over and they finish towed my vehicle,
they leaving me stranded on Cherry Avenue.
No streetlights me my four year old grandson
and my daughter, Jori's car wasn't towed.
Instead, she was left stranded in the dark when police drove off with her keys.
Her father eventually reached someone at the department,
but when an officer returned,
he denied they took the keys even as he handed them back to his father.
Well, you took no, man.
You took the keys? No.
She did by herself, man.
It was abandoned right here.
You just not coming back?
Well, because we just found the keys, man.
And how you know,
we're going to do we're going to deal with this.
We're going to deal with this.
While pursuing revenue,
officers have physically abused drivers and humiliated them.
For many people, the abuse didn't end on the side of the road.
Chiquita Grant hurried to the scene where police had pulled over her daughter.
When I pulled up to the scene where my daughter was in
and they searched searching my car, I did not see her.
So therefore, I started to get worried about where she is.
And what they were doing with her.
And I asked the police officer, you know, where's my daughter?
And he was like, well, she's all right now.
So I didn't ask you if she's all right. I ask you where she is.
He grabbed me, threw me down on the hood of my mom's car.
They tore my phone out my hand and smashed it against the car.
They took me to the police station.
They strip search me and then put me in the car with the man.
Sandra Harris was targeted simply for turning on her headlights
as the sun went down.
Concerned for her own safety, she asked for a supervisor to come.
They both put me in handcuffs and put me in the car.
And he searched my car.
I was two days, three days short of about to have my surgery.
And I had a prescription bottle of and I thought, it's
the one of us to get back in the car.
He said, yeah, but you're a drug dealer.
Sandra was taken to Brookside jail where her nightmarish ordeal continued
After told me
that I had to take off my clothes and make sure I didn't have any drugs.
So she came in and they had an on camera because they have cameras
in the jail cell.
And she handed me a dollar general bag.
And she said, once
you take all of your clothes off for Brookside victims bonding out of jail
or paying a fee to get their car out of impound is just the beginning.
Next, they must go to Brookside Town Court,
where a judge and prosecutor have seen their salaries double
as the ticketing scheme took off in this small town.
I was very much surprised because when we drove up,
it was about 150 people there waiting for court.
I got down there like 8:00 that morning.
I never seen so many people
waiting to go to court in my life.
It was round 130 2:00 in the afternoon before they even call me.
I didn't leave from down there till 5 p.m..
The town's ticketing and towing scheme
is making Brookside rich at the expense of innocent people.
Many living paycheck to paycheck.
I had to go give money from my father cause I didn't get paid to their Friday
to get out of jail. We paid over $800.
So even though I did nothing wrong
and my charge was drop, I still had to pay almost $1,000
to Brookside, to the court, to the towing company to get my car back.
Proceeds from the fines and towing fees don't go to fixing Brookside roads
or repairing streetlights.
They go right back into the police force that has come to look more
and more like an army unit.
For a sleepy town of 1200 residents.
The department purchased semiautomatic weapons with laser sights.
They secured a mine resistant vehicle which residents dubbed the town tank.
Newly purchased SUVs are painted matte black,
and they even started a K-9 unit and name their dog cache.
The justices item is supposed to be about protecting the public,
not turning a profit for the government.
The abuse in Brookside is the inevitable result of treating
vulnerable residents like walking, talking ATMs.
Across the country, cities rely on fines, fees
and court costs to line city and police department budgets.
The Institute for Justice filed a federal class action lawsuit
to end Brookside abuses, seek compensation for the town's victims,
and ensure that there are no more Brooke Sides.
I am fighting back for me and my daughter, Alexis,
because we were humiliated by Brookside Police Department.
They need to be held accountable.
If you got the audacity to pull over innocent, hardworking people for anything,
then, yeah, you don't need to be a police officer.
Nobody should have to go through what I went through.
So I think that's the main reason that we should be fighting back,
because there's so many people out there with stories like mine
and nobody should have to deal with it.