Austin Police Department releases racial profiling memo — what we learned

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Austin Police Department released data from 42,520 traffic stops in 2021.

“I take this very seriously,” said Chief Joseph Chacon. “Racial profiling is prohibited and against our policy.”

No officers received formal discipline for racial profiling last year, according to Chacon. “Based on state law, we really don’t report that out unless it is formal discipline – meaning we have a suspension,” he said.

In 2021, there were 19 formal complaints of racial profiling submitted to the Internal Affairs Division, compared to 25 in 2020. “Very few complaints when you look at our overall number of contacts,” said Chacon.

Below are charts of Austin’s racial demographic and data breaking down traffic stops based on race and gender.

The data also shows that in almost 98% of cases, officers did not know the race or gender of the person they were pulling over. Chief Chacon says this is one factor that implicates this data may not be a direct representation of the department’s relationship with the community.

“What we really need to see is a reduction in the overall number of contacts that APD makes,” he said. “We’re working towards building that out – but let me be clear, we need to reduce disparities overall. Of those numbers how many were officer-initiated vs officer-dispatched? Because on an officer dispatch, they have no control over that vs. something they initiate themselves.”

That specific breakdown was not provided in the report.

As we dug into these numbers, we found questions surrounding the reliability of the data. The Kroll Report released in February that evaluated APD’s use of force, public interactions and recruitment called for more consistency regarding data reporting.

The Office of Police Oversight (OPO) says APD still has not adopted its data-reporting recommendations from 2019.

“I feel as if we’re reporting very accurately or certainly to the best of our ability,” he said regarding the numbers in the 2021 memo. “We’ve got to get better about collecting our data…. But we’ve made significant progress over the last couple of years with the hiring of our chief data officer at the department.”

In 2021, the volume of traffic stops was down about 40% from 2020. Chacon says that’s due in large part to APD having to move officers from the highway enforcement and DWI units to assist with patrol.