Texas, A Not So Open Road

In the commentary "Minority drivers in Austin searched more than twice as often as whites" from the blog Grits for Breakfast, Scott Henson reviews the 2010 annual report for Austin PD traffic stops and searches. This report by the Austin Police Monitor shows shocking statistics for the searches of minority groups when compared to Whites. Overall, minority groups were not targeted when being pulled over, but more so after being stopped. African Americans were pulled over a total of 28,949 times, or 12% of the time, which is about equal to this demographics representation in the Austin population. However, African Americans were searched after being pulled over 4,356 times, which comes out to 22% of all searches, far more than their make up in population. Comparatively, Whites were pulled over 55% of the time, accounting for 127,661 stops in total. Of these 127,661 stops, only 6,724 searches took place, about 34% of the total. Overall, Whites were pulled over at a higher percentage than their representation in the population, which is about 50%, but were searched far less at 34%. According to the initial report African Americans are 2.71 times as likely to be searched when compared to Whites, and Hispanics are 2.37 times as likely to be searched.

This data suggests that African Americans and Hispanics are searched more often for a specific reason, maybe probable cause is found in the initial stop. But when the "hit" rate is evaluated, there is no real reason for these differences in search rates. A hit is defined as finding contraband during a search. Of the 4,356 searches of African American's cars, a hit was found only 32% of the time. Compared to the hit rate of whites, which is 27% of searches, this data suggests that Whites should be  considered just as much as African Americans when being searched. Even though African Americans were almost 3 times as likely to be searched, Whites actually yielded an equal percentage of hits. This suggests that Whites could actually yield more hits, but are slipping under the radar. 

So the question then is what is the reason for this disproportionate amount of searches for minorities? Is there really a justifiable reason? Probably not, as Henson suggests these ratios are "difficult to explain with a race-neutral interpretation." This report suggests that the roads are still ridden with discrimination, and it has become engrained in the process. There is no fix all to this problem, the Austin PD tried to reform the process by requiring written consent for searches at traffic stops but it has had little effect on the disproportionate amount of searches. So is there any hope for this problem, or has it become a way of doing business in Austin?