To: Harris County Commissioners Court
Through: Jim Bethke, Director, Justice Administration Department
prepared
Prepared By: Matthew Sweeney, Justice Policy Research Analyst, Justice Administration Department
Subject: An Evaluation of Harris County Traffic Stop Data in Compliance with the Sandra Bland Act
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Project ID (If applicable]:
Purpose and Request:
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Transmittal of a Report on Existing Law Enforcement Traffic Stop Data in Harris County to satisfy the Commissioners Court mandate in connection with the June 9, 2020 Supplemental Agenda Item 18.
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Background and Discussion:
JAD collected data from Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) on traffic stops in 2020. JAD analyzed the data to include each Constable Precinct and the HCSO. Additionally, JAD compared Harris County to Bexar County, Dallas County, Tarrant County, and Travis County. JAD created percentage rates for each variable based on the proportion that an event occurred to certain racial and demographic groups by the total number of events from all racial and ethnic groups. For more specific variables, such as search rates, JAD calculated a proportion of each racial and ethnic group that experienced an event divided by the total number of stops or events of that racial and ethnic group. JAD further used an equality of proportions test to determine if any disparities were statistically significant to a 99% confidence level. In this report, JAD examined:
? Gender Demographics;
? Racial Demographics;
? Racial and Gender Demographics;
? Consent Search by Racial Demographics;
? Contraband Discovery by Racial Demographics;
? Traffic Stops to Arrests by Racial Demographics;
? Type of Citation or Warning by Racial Demographics; and,
? Use-of-Force by Racial Demographics.
While most departments were not stopping specific demographics at disparate rates, some significant findings include the disparate rate of arrests, citations, and force against racial and ethnic minor...
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