In a number of recent cases across the country, individual police officers are being held accountable for crimes committed against motorists. In Georgia, Mississippi and Texas, the law enforcement officials responsible have been caught and face punishment for abusing the public trust. In Jeffersontown, Kentucky, however, a police officer faced minimal sanction for damaging the property of another driver.

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrested a Jones County Sheriff's Office auxiliary deputy on November 27 for stealing from motorists. Robert Dreading faces robbery charge for allegedly pulling over Hispanic motorists and keeping their money, the Laurel Leader-Call newspaper reported. In August, Cedartown, Georgia Police Officer Douglas Damiano, 38, was sentenced to two years and three months in federal prison for a similar scheme of robbing Hispanics during traffic stops. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation set up a sting operation in which an undercover sheriff's deputy posed as an ordinary motorist. Damiano pulled the undercover officer over and took $100 from him.

"This defendant used his badge to steal money from Hispanic motorists, thinking that they would never dare to come forward and challenge him," United States Attorney David E. Nahmias said in a statement. "His corruption is an unfortunate exception to the professionalism of most police officers."

Damiano is being held in a low-security federal prison in Petersburg, Virginia with a scheduled release date of July 24, 2009.

In Houston, Texas a police officer was caught taking advantage of motorists in a different way. A grand jury on November 27 sentenced a Houston Police Department traffic officer to five years in jail for lying to a grand jury and one year in jail for pulling over a 23-year-old woman, following her home, and making inappropriate sexual advances. J. Eric Matamoros, 30, pleaded guilty to the charges but can be out on parole within eighteen months, the Houston Chronicle reported.