The Daily News reported on Friday two Houston women who have filed a federal civil rights suit against the TX Department of Public Safety, including two state troopers for subjecting them to roadside body cavity searches on traffic stops. These searches are unconstitutional in Texas and several states.

Dashboard cameras have recorded the incident where Brandy Hamilton and Alexandra Randle were returning from a day trip in May 2012 and were stopped by the trooper who claimed to have smelled marijuana and ordered the women out of their vehicle to be searched by a female trooper. The trooper did not change gloves. Family members who were following the women circled back to witness them being assaulted under the guise of ‘suspicion’.

Civil rights attorneys told the Daily News reports that the incident with Houston and a separate incident in North Texas, (a case that was settled out of court, and the assaulting trooper fired) points to an unspoken, possibly widespread policy within the Texas State trooper.

You can read more here.

If there are other women in Texas who have been subjected to invasive searches on traffic stops believing that it is legal, it is not. If you have, here’s the link to the Texas Civil Rights Project, perhaps they could be the first resource to anyone seeking legal help. If any of our readers have additional resources in Texas that they’d recommend, please do. Like so many things, we just can’t remain silent on this one, we have to fight back.