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.