As lawmakers hotly debated the results of a recent review of DPS racial profiling statistics by a University of North Carolina professor and an Austin American Statesman news report, one thing was clear: It’s impossible to tell how troopers handle Hispanic motorists because as KXAN’s investigation last November revealed, DPS has been incorrectly recording their race as “white”, in violation of the Texas racial profiling law. The Statesman found, in part, that there were 231 troopers who searched black and Hispanic motorists they pulled over at least twice as frequently as they searched white drivers but were less likely to find contraband while searching the black and Hispanic drivers.
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The job of all troopers, McCraw said, “is to treat everyone with dignity and respect”. And when I say in more detail, it means all minorities, it means all demographics across the state, and it includes gender.
Coleman countered that explanation did not “pass muster” because it did nothing to dispel the disparity among black drivers stopped and searched by DPS. He also again condemned the conduct of the trooper who stopped Bland as inappropriate.
McCraw disputed the numbers, claiming the “cherry picking data sets” are flawed because of the department’s efforts along the border.
Baumgartner said the racial disparity is a pattern that’s seen in every state, not just Texas.
“Maybe the statute needs to be changed because of the disparities that we’re finding that can not be covered under racial profiling”, he said. “If they’re engaged in misconduct, we will act on that”. Despite an initial finding by the DPS Inspector General that the trooper did racially profile Strong and other motorists DPS brass overruled. The agency has no record of ever punishing a trooper for racial profiling.
When asked if the data shows Texas Troopers racially profile drivers, Baumgartner said he could not give lawmakers a “yes” or “no” answer.
KXAN also learned McCraw has yet to hire a consultant to review and analyze his agency’s traffic-stop data or review its policies and procedures, as he promised previous year after our investigation.
“The data aren’t going to disappear”.
The findings also suggest that the issue is not unique to Texas.
Coleman fictitiously said he didn’t realize “so many black people lived in the Rio Grande Valley”.
“The Texas DPS is not a particular outlier”, he said.
Baumgartner interjected to say the racial disparities in DPS searches were “all too real” and could not be “explained away”.
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Sandra Bland, the African-American woman who committed suicide in a Texas jail after a traffic stop turned confrontational past year, likely would not have died had the state trooper not been looking for a pretext to pull her over, a key state lawmaker said Tuesday. Yet most – 231 – found contraband on the minorities at lower rates.
