Pubdate: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning News Contact: P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265 Fax: (972) 263-0456 Feedback: http://dmnweb.dallasnews.com/letters/ Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Forum: http://forums.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/wwwthreads.pl Author: Christy Hoppe DPS SEARCH RATE HIGHER FOR MINORITIES Profiling Of Drivers Denied AUSTIN - Black and Hispanic motorists who are stopped by state troopers are more than twice as likely to have their vehicles searched as white drivers, the first seven months of statistics compiled by the Texas Department of Public Safety show. State lawmakers who want to require police departments to keep such records said the figures show what they have suspected all along: that minorities are being unfairly targeted. "Absolutely, it is racial profiling," said Rep. Harold Dutton, a Houston Democrat. But DPS officials said it is the actions of the drivers that lead to searches, not the ethnicity of the vehicles' occupants. "We don't believe that there are searches occurring because a person is of a certain race or ethnicity," said Maj. Ricky Smith, who oversees DPS traffic enforcement. "We believe searches are occurring because there is an indication of criminal activity based on our experience as police officers." The agency began voluntarily collecting its own traffic data last March. The Dallas Morning News examined 491,000 traffic tickets and 441,000 warning citations that troopers issued from that month through September. In about 26,300 cases, or 3 percent of the stops, the vehicles were searched. Troopers searched about one in 50 white motorists stopped, one in 22 black drivers and one in 20 Hispanics, according to the DPS records. In instances in which only warnings were issued, presumably for minor offenses, the search rate for whites dropped to one in 70, but the black and Hispanic rates remained the same - meaning minority drivers were 3.5 times more likely than white drivers to be searched. University of Texas economics professor and statistician Dwight Steward analyzed the tickets and warning citations at the request of The News. He looked for other factors that could explain the racial disparity, such as time of day, particular officers, type of road, type of car, out-of-state status or whether multiple infractions were noted. "I looked at all of those factors and not any other factor could explain the differences we were seeing," he said. The vast majority of searches occurred on interstate highways, not farm roads, and most were not late at night, Dr. Steward said. "I've turned it a lot of different ways. The only other thing I could say is Hispanics and blacks did things disproportionately to make themselves get searched. But I could not identify other factors," he said. Assistant Chief Randy Elliston said DPS has been proactive in its training and its directives to not use race as a basis for law enforcement decisions. He said actions that raise suspicion, for instance, could be drivers and passengers who give conflicting stories. "Racial profiling is illegal, unethical, against the principles of good police work and will not be tolerated," Chief Elliston said. He said that the percentage of minorities stopped by troopers statewide is proportional to their population. "If we had a problem with racial profiling, our stops would look different than they do," Chief Elliston said. "Then we get down to searches, and the Hispanic search rate is higher, and we're just going to have to hang our hat on the fact of our border relationship with Mexico," he said. Chief Elliston said troopers are seeking to stop drug traffickers, who he said often exploit the people they use to carry the illegal cargo. Frequently, those will be Spanish speakers who live in the region and need money, he said. In 10 percent of the searches statewide, contraband or other evidence of illegal activity is obtained, Maj. Smith said. "We think it indicates good police work," he said. The DPS said this week that it was unable to provide the racial breakdown of arrests in those cases. DPS has three South Texas districts, and the statistics show the search rate for Hispanics in those areas ranges from 2 percent of those stopped in McAllen to 5.7 percent in Corpus Christi. In comparison, the highest search rate in those districts for blacks is 4.1 percent, and 2.3 percent for whites. Away from the border But by far the greatest percentage of Hispanic drivers searched was in a district far from the Mexican border - northeast Texas. In the Tyler area, 12 percent of Hispanic motorists stopped by troopers were searched - a rate six times that of whites. For the 2,110 Hispanic drivers issued only warning citations, almost one of every six was searched. Top DPS officials said Tyler is active in criminal interdiction and troopers there apparently are observing suspicious behavior. "If there are indicators that criminal activity is afoot, then we use these searches," Maj. Smith said. "We do have a high seizure rate out of Tyler." Maj. Smith said he believes another aspect of battling racial profiling is the danger of making troopers so conscious of race that they are hesitant to perform their duties. "We can't ask that trooper to say, 'Well, I've searched five whites and I've searched four blacks, so I can't search any more blacks.' We don't want them to break it down that way. We want them to treat everybody the same," he said. Joe Berra of San Antonio, general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said he believes the statistics speak clearly and show there is a problem. "We contest the DPS interpretation that everything is OK," he said. He said he doesn't understand how the statistical discrepancies can be based on drug interdiction when the search rate is higher for minorities in some areas away from the border. "And when you seem to say that because drugs come from Mexico, it's more likely that Hispanics or Mexican-looking people are being searched - that sounds like a racial profile," Mr. Berra said. He said he commends the DPS for improving training to avoid profiling and collecting their own traffic data. But he said they need to look more at what is being reported in the different regions. Addressing concerns Maj. Smith said the DPS devotes itself to preventing profiling with training, as well as internal reviews of the stops and searches by officers. In almost all cases, the driver gives permission for the officer to search the vehicle. In reviews with superiors, the officer must be able to articulate reasons why he requested the search, Maj. Smith said. "We're working as hard as we can in this agency on this issue. Individual cases could happen, and we're trying to address that," he said. "We've tried to do the right thing." Legal and minority rights groups are supporting efforts by state lawmakers to require data collection by local police departments and to assess penalties for racial profiling. William Harrell, state director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that in the last 10 months, his group has logged more than 200 complaints from Texas drivers who believe they were targets of racial profiling. "The police would like you to believe that this is all about criminals who are complaining. But the people who we are getting the complaints from are business leaders, lawmakers and a federal judge who has been stopped three times," he said. Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, a sponsor of a bill to be introduced Monday that would require cities to collect race-based data on traffic stops, said the DPS should seek outside sources to perform an independent analysis of their statistics. "They should look at their own training issues. If they fail to do that, then there is cause for concern," he said. Mr. Dutton, the House sponsor of another bill, was even more pointed: "Police might not be conscious of racial profiling because they have been bred not to see it," he said. "This is not about criminals, but about innocent people," Mr. Dutton said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom