Texas Police More Likely to Search Autos Driven by Minorities

In Texas, Black drivers are 50 percent more likely to be searched after being pulled over by state police than a white person. In the case of Hispanics, they were 33 percent more likely to have their vehicles inspected than white motorists, a study by the Austin American-Statesman revealed Saturday.

The website conducted an analysis of 15 million records representing every single Department of Public Safety police traffic stops between 2009 and July 2015.

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The analysis refutes reports by the DPS which say state troopers treat motorists of different races equally. But after learning of the American-Statesman's report, the DPS said it would seek an independent review of the way police officials collect and analyze traffic stop data.

“Because this is such an important issue, DPS will be seeking to enter into a contract with third-party experts to review the department’s traffic stop data collection and analyses to determine if there are any recommendations for improving those efforts,” DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said.

Alex del Carmen, executive director of Tarleton State University’s School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies who trains Texas police officials to measure and reduce racial profiling, said much of DPS’ traffic stop data was so poorly kept that it was difficult to analyze.

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For example, the report added, troopers performed 20,000 searches on motorists over the five-year period without indicating the race of the driver.

The American-Statesman also found that searches on vehicles driven by Hispanics were less likely to result in the seizure of drugs, weapons or illegal money than those carried out on white drivers' autos.

Del Carmen questioned, “Why is it that despite the thousands of Hispanics searched as a result of a stop, only one out of four searches resulted in contraband?”

Charles Epp, a University of Kansas professor and author of “Pull Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship,” said it all boils down to racial profiling.

“Or, to put it more bluntly, they are searching a higher percentage of Hispanics just because they appear to be Hispanic,” Epp said.

The DPS came under public scrutiny in July, when Black driver Sandra Bland, who was travelling with her children, was stopped for an alleged traffic violation which escalated to her being brutally attacked by police and then being discovered dead in her cell three days after being arrested.

Last month, the analysis of DPS traffic stops conducted by academics from North Carolina and Texas found that troopers are more likely to let white drivers off with only a warning, while Black people usually get a ticket.

The analysis found that more than 85 percent of Hispanic men subjected to searches had no contraband, while searches of less than 67 percent of vehicles driven by white men were found to have no illegal objects on board.