Dallas PD: Still No Racial Profiling Here

Dallas PD: Still No Racial Profiling Here

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Feb. 13 2012 at 8:35 AM

From the 2011 Dallas Police Department Traffic Contact Data Annual Report

It's that time of the year -- time for the Dallas Police Department to release its annual by-the-numbers breakdown of traffic stops officers made in 2011. Chief David Brown himself will go to City Hall today to present the council's Public Safety Committee with the 2011 Dallas Police Department Traffic Contact Data Annual Report you'll find below, in which Brown writes in his Letter to the Citizens of Dallas that "we are confident that the information contained in this report will serve as further evidence of our commitment to fair and equitable treatment of all citizens, and that it will serve as a foundation to strengthen our bond with our community." (Which sounds familiar only because it is.)

The chart above repeats throughout the doc; and in addition to the 203,014 documented traffic stops DPD says there were an additional 580,689 "calls for service." And out of all those documented run-ins, says the department, there were just 14 complaints filed with Internal Affairs alleging racial profiling. And out of those, says the report, all were either unfounded or not sustained, though six of the the claims are still classified as "pending."

The report also looks at whether officers knew the race or ethnicity of the person being pulled over in advance of hitting the lights and siren -- a state law since January 2010, and a practice back-and-forthed by FOX News last year. Some officers say, yes, they did -- 6.66 percent. Most said nope, not at all, not me, no way, it's all content of their character here. But 14 percent of the reports filed didn't have that particular blank filled out; says the report to council, "In addressing the number of blank responses, supervisors will be held more accountable in reviewing officer's citations," though how it does not say. PS_DPD_TrafficContactData_021312-1

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Muh Dik

white-guilt libtard horse shit

Achtung!

DWB. driving while black.

Diana Powe

When the racial profiling law was passed by the Legislature, I was given the task at the Richardson Police Department of studying how we should present the raw data we gathered by looking into the professional literature on racial profiling. I'm in complete sympathy with the intent of the law and the concerns of those who have no doubt that they've been profiled. Having said that, these traffic contact statistics simply don't prove anything.

The reason they don't is that in order for you to reach some conclusion, you would have to know what the racial composition of the driving population in any given area is over time. Actual attempts have been made to try to do this, specifically in the case of the New Jersey Turnpike racial profiling case, but in practice it's actually not particularly easy to stare at passing traffic and reach conclusions about the race of the driver of each car.

Various proxies have been tried, such as racial demographics of licensed drivers or of smaller geographical areas, but they're all highly problematic.

GusMitchem

Whats more racist than saying all things being equal this should be equal. Well you know what all things are not equal. Ill bet you could draw similar conclusions if you say divide the stats based on car year model. Lets say anyone driving a car built between 1990-2003 vs folks driving cars 2004-2012. These things are more economic than racial, poor people in beat up cars get pulled over more often. I know Ive driven pieces of crap for years and driven nice cars a few times too.

Kergo 1 Spaceship

All of this is blah blah blah politico speak....means nothing! Just like how violent crime has gone down; it's all about hiding numbers.

Now:If a white guy in a station wagon, with a buttoned up Polo rolls down Elm (and) a black dude with 58 inch rims, thumpin' bass and tinted windows also.......who gets pulled over and arrested first?

Jes Sayin'.

ScottsMerkin

Exactly Kergs, cops dont have to profile anymore. We the public do it for them. Put giant rims and a booming stereo in any car, you are goin to get pulled over. Put 8 mexicans in a truck, they are going to get pulled over. Put a loud ass exhaust system on your camaro or your import, you gonna get pulled over. It just so happens that a certain segment of our population happend to drive the late 90's use cop cars ,put 25"rims on them and 4 15's in the trunk. Wierd that they seem to be the ones popped for drugs the most too.

Kergo 1 Spaceship

I'm gettin' rid of my 25" inch rims today.....I donwanna be profiled. They raycess. Sir.

Kergo 1 Spaceship

I'm old....gotta keep it real!

ScottsMerkin

damn i feel old now. forgot about the video screens, and they have to rolling porn on them too, just to keep it real

Kergo 1 Spaceship

the internet questions your response.

Oak Cliff Townie

Both of you are so lame and yesterday.Hip as seen & heard most weekends from in the real Oak Cliff Is loud A$$ Boat horns and side window video screens facing out side .Ground effect lighting both under the ride on the running boards .

NEW for the 2/11 -2/12 was the Caddy SUV running what seemed to be an old style Glass pack Dual exhaust system .

I wonder how those numbers will change now because of the new insurance database which allows officers to see if a car has insurance before they pull it over .

DaTruth

What I take away from this is that blacks had their car searched twice as much as whites, even though the number of stops were roughly equal. So are we sure there was no profiling?

Titus Groan

Let's take it to the conclusion: Blacks were 85% more likely to be searched than Whites. However, if arrests are "substantiated searches" Blacks were 38% more likely to be arrested. Dividing 1.85 by 1.38 means that Blacks had a 33% greater likelihood to be stopped, regardless whether it was warranted. So, yeah, that kind of screams profiling to me.

RTGolden

Actually, the numbers kind of bear out that Whites were more likely to be stopped, by 3.8 percentage points of total stops. Doesn't take any great mathematical leaps, it's right there in the chart, first and second rows, second column. Also, it shows that Blacks' percentages for searches with consent were consistent with the percentage of stops of Black drivers, whereas whites were less likely to consent to searches. What I take from that is more Black drivers were cooperative with law enforcement and more white drivers had something to hide.

I think the numbers you were crunching might show that Blacks have a higher likelihood of facing arrest, once stopped, by about 1%. However, with 24 arrests resulting from 32 traffic stops, Middle Easterners had a 75% arrest/stop rate.

Heywood U Buzzoff

Wilonsky -- you may want to make sure that Schutz has some coffee in him before the person who reads articles to gets to this one! He will take Custodial Arrest as picking on custodians, loop it back to Newt Gringrich, before resuming his 'OccupyStall #3' in the men's room.

Guy Reynolds

What I take away from this is that Asians are damn good drivers.

Kergo 1 Spaceship

ever see that lady drive into lake ray Hubbard?

Anon

that's in direct opposition to my anecdotal experience. I'd guess they make up a tiny fraction of the driving population in Dallas, so the fact that there are very few stops of Asians in Dallas doesn't really mean much.