Most stops are on white, male drivers
Statistics
The Sulphur Springs Police Department has released its yearly agency statistics regarding vehicle stops and racial profiling.
According to yearly data from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2019, SSPD initiated 9,534 traffic stops. In approximately 71% of these cases, these stops were initiated because of a moving traffic violation, according to police data. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, moving traffic violations include speeding, changing lanes when unsafe, disregarding stop signs and others.
The other majority of stops conducted by SSPD are vehicle traffic violations, accounting for 24% of stops, according to SSPD data. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, vehicle traffic violations include driving an uninsured vehicle, faulty equipment and others.
The majority of SSPD-initiated stops, 67.8%, occur on city streets, while 28% occur on U.S. highways. Only two stops out of the over 9,000 occurred on county roads. None occurred on state highways or private property, SSPD said.
In 4.1% of vehicle stops, a search was conducted on the vehicle, while in 96% of cases, a search was not conducted on the vehicle. Of those searches conducted, 186 gave consent to search the vehicle, 11 had contraband in plain view, and 182 gave police probable cause to search the vehicle, SSPD said.
In approximately 2.2% of stops, contraband was discovered. Of that contraband, 72% consisted of drugs, 15% consisted of alcohol, 2.9% was stolen property and 9.3% was other contraband. It’s crucial to note that these numbers do not add up to 100% as those with contraband could have more than one type of contraband in their vehicle or on their person, Detective Rusty Stillwagoner told the Sulphur Springs city council. Currency and weapons were two types of contraband not found in vehicle searches in 2019, data showed.
Only 2.5% of the time did a traffic stop result in an arrest, according to data. A majority of the time (50.9%) an SSPD officer initiated a traffic stop, the respondent was let off with a written warning, according to data.
According to SSPD’s calculations, physical force was used during a traffic stop in 20 stops or 2.2% of cases.
The gender distribution of traffic stops is primarily male (59.5%) and primarily white (70.6%). Police estimated that in 2.6% of traffic stops, the officer initiating the arrest knew the race of the individual driving prior to the stop.