Analysis
In 2001, the Texas legislature passed Senate Bill 1074 which became the Texas Racial
Profiling Law. That is, the law came into effect on January 1, 2002 and required all police
departments in Texas, to collect traffic-related data and report this information to their local
governing authority by March 1 st of each year. In 2009, the racial profiling law was modified to
include the collection and reporting of all motor vehicle related contacts where a citation was
issued or arrest made. In addition, the modification to the law further requires that all police
officers indicate whether or not they knew the race or ethnicity of the individual before detaining
them. Further, it is required that agencies report motor vehicle related data to their local
governing authority and to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) by March 1st
of each year. The purpose in collecting and presenting this information is to determine if police
officers in a particular municipality are engaging in the practice of racially profiling minority
motorists.
The Texas Racial Profiling Law also requires police departments to interpret motor
vehicle-related data. Even though most researchers would probably agree with the fact that it is
within the confines of good practice for police departments to be accountable to the citizenry
while carrying a transparent image before the community, it is very difficult to determine if
individual police officers are engaging in racial profiling, from a review and analysis of
aggregate/institutional data. In other words, it is challenging for a reputable researcher to
identify specific “individual” racist behavior from aggregate-level “institutional” data on traffic
or motor vehicle-related contacts.
As stated previously, in 2009, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3389, which
modified the existing Racial Profiling Law by adding new requirements; this took effect on
January 1st, 2010. These most recent changes include, but are not exclusive of, the re-definition
of a contact to include motor vehicles where a citation was issued or an arrest made. In addition,
it requires police officers to indicate if they knew the race or ethnicity of the individual before
detaining them. Also, the more recent law requires adding "middle eastern" to the racial and
ethnic category and submitting the annual data report to TCOLE before March 1st of each year.
I am pleased to inform you that these additional requirements have been addressed, since 2009,
by the Arlington Police Department as it is demonstrated throughout this report.
In an effort to comply with The Texas Racial Profiling Law, the Arlington Police
Department commissioned the analysis of its 2015 motor vehicle contact data. Thus, two
different types of data analyses were performed. The first of these involved a careful evaluation
of the 2015 motor vehicle-related data. This particular analysis measured, as required by the
law, the number and percentage of Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native
Americans, Middle Easterners and individuals belonging to the “other” category, that came in
contact with the police in the course of a motor vehicle related contact, and were either issued a
citation or arrested. Further, the analysis included information relevant to the number and
percentage of searches (table 1) while indicating the type of search performed (i.e., consensual or
probable cause). Also, the data analysis included the number and percentage of individuals who,
after they came in contact with the police for a motor vehicle-related reason, were arrested.