Texas DPS addresses Austin City Council following criticism over APD partnership

In just over one month, the Texas Department of Public Safety reported making nearly 12,000 traffic stops in Austin, with the most of those motorists pulled over being Latino or Black.

New data was shared with Austin City Council members during a work session on Tuesday. Tuesday's revelation by the DPS follows last week's disclosure by the agency that nearly 9 of 10 arrested by the task force, which started March 30, are people of color. Most stood charged with misdemeanors, including drunken driving, low-level drug possession and traffic compliance, such as driving without a license.

In a meeting two weeks ago, Austin Police Chief Joe Chacon had assured City Council members that officers were not targeting certain neighborhoods. He said that the response is call-driven, and that DPS officers reported they had worked calls for service in seven of the nine sectors of the city.

On Tuesday, Chacon told the American-Statesman that he does not like what that data represent, but he said that he was working with the DPS to shift the focus. What that looks like is still to come, he said.

What's next? Austin city leaders reassured public that DPS and APD would not overpolice

"We are trying to find the balance with this," Chacon said. "We can't ignore calls for service, but we need to come in and create that balance we are looking for."

In late March, the DPS and Austin police joined forces temporarily at the request of Mayor Kirk Watson who sought state help. Gov. Greg Abbott quickly ordered the DPS to assist with policing in Austin, which has been hampered by a shortage of officers and 911 dispatchers.

According to the statistics presented, the nearly 12,000 traffic stops took place between March 30 and April 27, with an overwhelming majority, nearly 70%, of people being stopped being Black or Latino. By contrast, DPS averages about 18,000 traffic stops in Austin in a year.

“We don’t want people to feel targeted or racially profiled,” said Watson, despite the data presented to him and the City Council that the vast majority of individuals charged or stopped are people of color.

Previously: Some questions still surround DPS partnership among city leaders

While authorities say the location of DPS troopers is call-driven, specific data on arrest demographics and locations of their responses were still not available Tuesday. Authorities cited a need for more time to gather data from two separate systems, and promised to have that data at the May 22 public safety meeting.

DPS Director Steven McCraw insists the data is consistent with the population of Austin, including the increase of Hispanic people being pulled over and ticketed.

According to DPS data, 54.1% of traffic stops were of people who were Hispanic or Latino. However, Austin’s Hispanic population makes up about 33% of the city’s total population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“The evidence is there that supports proactive policing,” McCraw said. “We go where we are told to go and do what we do. ... Looking at the demographics, they are consistent with the city demographic breakdown. And the areas we are operating in are where the Hispanic populations are higher, so there is an increase among that demographic.”

Several council members, however, expressed outrage with the new data and said that they did not believe the goals of the partnership aligned with the actions of DPS troopers.

While all council members agreed there was a need to alleviate the pressures being placed on Austin’s strained Police Department, a balance was needed so that communities of color would not feel targeted.

“I want to make sure we are really working with our troopers to have them doing actual strategies that address our objectives,” Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said. “(We all welcome additional support in) areas where we can be effective (in keeping people safe), but it can’t be at expense of our East Austin communities.”

Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison said many of the crime issues are deeply rooted in poverty, social justice, social injustice over policing and racism.

"My concern is there is not any room for observation around the nuance," Harper-Madison said. "The true implications of having someone already struggling get another infraction means the family suffers deeply, and it's almost impossible to recover."

Additionally, if law enforcement is going to enforce the law, it should be across the city, and not just in areas where people of color live, because crime is everywhere, she said.

"Violent crime component is the driver (of this partnership), but that crime originates somewhere, and we need to look at whole city and be fully aware of the nuance behind some of this criminal activity," Harper-Madison said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas DPS made 12,000 traffic stops in one month of APD partnership