Race a Factor in Texas Stops - Study Finds Police More Likely to Pull Over Blacks, Latinos

A study commissioned by minority advocacy groups released Thursday found that police throughout Texas stop and search black and Latino drivers at higher rates than whites but that officers are more likely to find drugs, guns and other contraband on whites. The study, called "Don't Mind If I Take a Look, Do Ya?," examined 2003 statistics provided by 1,060 law enforcement agencies on consensual searches of vehicles during traffic stops and how often contraband was found. It said that 3 of 5 law enforcement agencies reported conducting searches of minority drivers at higher rates than whites. In addition, of the agencies that searched blacks and Latinos at higher rates, 51 percent found contraband on whites at a higher rate than on blacks, while 58 percent found contraband in the possession of whites at higher rates than in the possession of Latinos. Although sponsors of the study admitted that discrepancies exist in how the local police agencies analyzed and reported their data, they said that overall, the statistics show a pattern of racial profiling. "You're wasting a lot of resources that obviously can be used to fight crime elsewhere, and you're subjecting a lot of people to unnecessary searches," said Scott Henson, director of the police accountability project for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. The report said the overwhelming majority of law enforcement agencies "provided no mitigating information or insight to explain disparate search rates between Anglos and minorities."  [more]