AUSTIN, Texas — After a video of a woman being frisked before her arrest has circulated on social media, the Austin Police Department is responding to claims that she was groped by an officer.
The video, which has been retweeted hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter and shared more than 4,000 times on Facebook, shows an Austin officer searching a woman at the front of a patrol car. A crowd of people appears to have formed around the woman and officers while the officer moves his hand around her breasts.
The woman, identified by the APD as Rosalinda Nuno Trevino, can be heard telling the officer, "I demand a female officer," while people in the crowd can be heard telling the officer to stop touching her.
The APD responded to the video in a written statement on July 7. The department said that the video was recorded on July 4 during a protest in Downtown Austin.
The APD said Trevino was driving her SUV behind officers who were riding their motorcycles behind the march to keep people safe from traffic. According to the statement, Trevino was driving closely behind the officers, honking her horn and started driving through empty parking spaces in an attempt to move her car around the officers' motorcycles.
When officers told her to stay behind their motorcycles, she allegedly stopped her SUV and ran up to the officer to request his badge number, "which the officer provided," the police statement said.
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Then, the APD said at the intersection of Second Street and Congress Avenue, Trevino honked her horn and drove through a red light before getting out of her car again to approach officers. At this point, she was placed under arrest for "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," the statement said.
Suspects are searched before they are placed under arrest, according to the department's policy. Per APD's policy, the department said Trevino was moved to the front of the officer's vehicle to conduct a search in front of the vehicle's camera and in front of the other officer. In regard to her request for a female officer, the police department said she was advised a female officer was not available.
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