16 Jul 2013
There have been allegations leveled for some time against police departments around the state and around the country claiming that many traffic stops, in particular, have their genesis in racial profiling. When the attention was drawn to the Austin PD about a year ago, a policy was implemented under which consent to searches of individuals incident to a traffic stop had to be in writing and be approved by a supervisor. The policy was implemented after records showed that the percentage of African-Americans searched during traffic stops was much higher than for Caucasians. The percentage for Hispanics was close to three times as high.
So under the heading of “nothing changes if nothing changes,” we come to a stop that took place last week on Congress Avenue. An officer of the APD says he saw the driver, Lawrence Haddad, run a red light, although interestingly, the event was not caught on the cruiser’s dashboard camera. After stopping and approaching the car, the officer asked for the driver’s license and registration. When the driver went to reach into the glove compartment for the documents, he was ordered out of the car. Eventually, the “suspect” was searched, handcuffed and taken to jail. When Haddad was released after a six-hour ordeal, he also discovered that his car had been impounded. There aren’t much in the way of facts in the case, but the following appears to be uncontroverted: the driver was never charged with any crime, not even a traffic violation. (Remember the red light claim?). To add insult to injury, he had to pay to get his car out of the impound lot.
We understand that opinions on this sort of stop will vary, but this incident does at least call into question the validity of the stop, search and lock-up. So the next question you might ask is what the racial/ethnic figures are on traffic stop searches. Maybe they show that claims of racial profiling are justified – and maybe not. The problem is that the APD keeps records of some aspects of traffic stops, but not others. They do not, for example, keep track of vehicle searches. We are also told that one in every twenty searches in Austin is not properly documented, although the position of the APD is that this is the fault of court clerks, who don’t fill out the paperwork properly.
We don’t really know how to address completely the potential racial profiling issue as it pertains to traffic stops. We can say, however, that better and more detailed record-keeping would be instructive for all of us.
Law Office of David D. White, PLLC
1205 Rio Grande Street
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 369-3737