HPD highway interdiction unit details major seizures; residents and advocates raise concerns about traffic stops and surveillance

Sergeant Matthew Ham of the Houston Police Department’s Highway Interdiction Unit told a Houston City Council committee that the unit uses freeway traffic stops to disrupt narcotics, weapons and stolen-cargo networks that move through the Houston area.

“Our main focus at Highway Interdiction is to disrupt and dismantle criminal activity that occurs on the highways throughout the Houston area,” Sergeant Ham said, citing Houston’s highway connections to the border, other large cities and the Port of Houston as reasons the city is a transit hub for contraband.

Ham described several seizures that his unit attributed to traffic stops and canine alerts: 60 kilograms of cocaine and 10 kilograms of fentanyl hidden inside aftermarket commercial motor-vehicle batteries recovered from a refrigerated trailer; 16 kilograms of cocaine concealed in a luggage compartment on a transit van; and a 2021 case the unit linked to seizures of 612 kilograms of methamphetamine and 135 kilograms of heroin. Ham said the unit seized 331 weapons and, for 2021–2024 combined, quantities including “1,705 kilos of cocaine, 3,726 kilos of methamphetamine, 172 kilos of heroin, and 43 kilos of fentanyl.” He also provided year-to-date numbers through May, including 271 kilos of cocaine and 10.5 kilos of fentanyl.

Ham said traffic stops are the unit’s primary investigative tool and emphasized constitutional limitations. “Every vehicle we stop is based on probable cause,” he said. Asked about searches, he said the automobile-exception doctrine “allows us to conduct a...warrantless search of the vehicle whenever we have probable cause.”

Council members and public commenters praised the unit’s results but raised concerns about methods. Laura Gallier, a District C constituent who said she has followed the presentation, said she “applaud[s] the results,” but asked the council to consider whether methods such as racial profiling occur. Sara, who identified herself as a teacher, told the committee she opposes HPD–ICE cooperation and called for ending “non safety traffic stops,” saying such stops “terrifies and terrorizes black and brown families.” She also cited recent reporting about increased searches of Flock camera footage and urged more transparency about officers’ justifications for searches.

Councilmembers asked operational questions: how stops begin, whether they rely on tips or on observed driving behavior, use of Flock cameras, and unit staffing. Ham said the unit combines proactive highway patrol, behavioral observation and information from other agencies; he said the unit has 10 officers and two canines assigned. On technology, Ham described a backscatter X-ray vehicle used after probable cause and canine alerts to detect hidden compartments.

No formal action or vote followed the presentations. Committee members thanked HPD for the briefing and acknowledged public concerns about profiling and surveillance tools. Several council members urged HPD to ensure officers document justifications when using camera-search tools and to consider the community impacts of traffic-stop tactics.

Provenance: Sergeant Ham’s presentation began in the committee transcript at 00:01:44 (segment starting 104.994995) and related discussion and public comment on surveillance and traffic-stop methods continued through the public-comment segment beginning 00:48:32 (segment starting 2912.315).