Texas Woman Sarah Boaz Arrested and Strip Searched Over Unpaid Parking Ticket

Isn’t the punishment supposed to fit the crime … How about some type of proportionality of crime?

A North Texas woman, Sarah Boaz, arrested and stripped search over a parking ticket. REALLY? You mean to tell me that law enforcement can’t use a little more common sense than this? Why on earth would we waste law enforcement time and resources for such things like this?

pic credit: North Richland Hills Police Department

A North Texas woman was handcuffed, stripped down and booked into jail – all because of an overdue traffic ticket.

It was just a ticket. Sarah Boaz was cited in August after an officer said she ran a stop sign.

Boaz lost the ticket, but said she knows it was wrong not to have paid it right away. Despite those missteps, she also says she never expected a late fee or penalty to land her in jail.

It happens in every city, every day, at just about every intersection. Drivers roll past stop signs, and through stoplights. But getting caught, and getting a ticket, is nothing compared to what Boaz got.

“I guess it was just frustrating to me, that a bill that I pay a month late, I end up in jail for,” she said.

CBS 11 News learned being stripped down is standard procedure for anyone brought to the jail in North Richland Hills. In an email to CBS 11 News Friday morning, the North Richland Hills Police Department said though Boaz was forced to undress, the search is not considered a strip search. In that email they said, “She was given a dress out. Before they go into the cell they are taken by a detention officer of the same sex to a private room with no cameras. They have to remove all clothing and they are given a jumpsuit. The officer searches their clothes, at no time does the officer touch them.”