(Seguin) — If you missed our conversation with Seguin Police Chief Jason Brady, you can now listen to it online at seguintoday.com. The bulk of the nearly hour-long interview featured a discussion of a September 2025 traffic stop involving a 16-year-old boy.
Chief Brady says the optics of the stop may have been troubling to some, but ultimately, he believes the officer did not violate the department’s policy for use of force. Brady says that’s a separate question from whether or not it could have been handled differently.
“That’s the other benefit of…having body cameras and having footage — is that officers are able to review and say, could that have been handled different? Are there other ways to do that? And there’s always different ways. We’re always looking for opportunities to improve. And also, you have to look at the totality of it. If he’d been a two-officer unit, if it had been… 3 o’clock in the afternoon, if it’d been in a busy parking lot or something of that nature — would the officer have interacted differently? Would his perception of the environment been different? (It) could absolutely. Would a different officer maybe have different perceptions, but you know we’re dealing with 73 different individuals that we have on our department,” said Brady.
Brady also addressed the questions that have been raised in the public about whether or not the teen had a right to call a parent during the traffic stop. Brady says officers, during a traffic stop, have control over your movements and communications. He says a parent needed to be present is incorrect.
“Again, I think people look at (it), they try to find similar circumstances because that’s how in our mind, we relate to situations. And (they say),‘my daughter got pulled over driving the family minivan the other day and she was allowed to use her phone.’ That’s again, up to the officer and the environment that he’s perceiving. And so, in terms of, there were a lot of things that came (forward, like);‘well, you can’t (do that), he’s a minor. You can’t question him.’ Well, let’s not forget in Texas, 17 is an adult. So, he’s a minor, but he’s not a toddler, right? And he’s old enough to be driving on public streets at 11 o’clock at night…and he’s old enough to drive a car. So, I think the age is of a concern, but it’s not to say that a 16-year-old can’t be dangerous or 16-year-olds can’t have weapons, because we routinely find this to be the case. But we heard, you can’t question a minor without a parent. That’s absolutely not true,” said Brady.
During the interview on KWED’s Saturday Topic program, Brady made a point to speak directly to the community, especially to parents who might have had a hard time watching the video. He says the officer had cause to use a straight-arm bar to take the teen to the ground, and Brady again stressed that the teen wasn’t slammed to the ground. However, he admitted it’s not easy to watch any use of force.
“I see that. I see the optics of that. And I understand why members of our community, parents, have concerns. And again, I’m happy to discuss it with them. I’m happy to look at that, happy to explore more. What I’m not going to entertain is people from other states that are trying to disrupt our community, trying to mischaracterize that encounter and, you know, trying to do various things for clicks and likes and all that silliness. I just don’t subscribe to that,” said Brady.
Brady says his department is committed to living up to the highest professional standards in Texas. He says that includes being accountable to the public or to those who want to file a complaint. He says recent claims that the teen’s family was effectively denied an opportunity to file a complaint prior to a 30-day deadline is an issue that he says never surfaced until after body-cam video went viral on social media six months later.
“That’s the first I heard of a visit. I know that evening there were…some phone calls, and on multiple occasions it was described to our complaint process. In fact, our forms are online. So, you can go to our website and get one of our forms. A complaint by law has to be in writing and signed,” said Brady.
Brady says the department welcomes feedback on its work. He says that’s part of serving and protecting this community. But he says he can’t tolerate the actions of some people, mostly from outside of Seguin. Brady says he believes there was a coordinated attack on the department’s call system, tying up dispatchers after the video appeared online. Brady says it appeared their only motive was to disrupt the police department’s ability to provide services to the people of Seguin.
“These are people from out of state. Most of them could not pronounce the word Seguin. Again, just cussing and trying to tie up the lines. We’ve never dealt with that here. So, our protocols — we don’t hang up on people, so as long as they were spewing — I’ve since instructed them (to hang up). It’s like, you don’t have an emergency, you don’t need police, fire, or EMS, then hang up the phone, or they are authorized to do so. But at that point, they didn’t have that. But even then, the calls would keep coming. So yeah, the intention was to prevent the citizens and community of Seguin from receiving those emergency services that they may need. And I think that’s…to me, that’s despicable,” said Brady.
The case involved the teen and a male friend who were riding an electric bike. It was late on a school night, and the teens were pulled over for running a stop sign. The boy tried to call his dad, and the officer told him to put his phone away, which he did. But the dad called back and the boy answered. The officer told him again to put his phone away and reached for it. The boy turned away from him, and when that happened, the officer took him down to the ground. The boy’s family says the young man suffered a concussion during the incident, and they believe the officer’s actions were unnecessary.
Again, our full conversation with Chief Brady is available on-demand via our website seguintoday.com.