Pflugerville police stopped and searched Black drivers at a disproportionate rate last year

Pflugerville police stopped and searched Black drivers at a disproportionate rate last year, according to a report released by the department last month. Black people make up about 15% of the city’s population but accounted for 26% of all stops in 2021. In contrast, white people made up 33% of total stops, although 40% of the Pflugerville population is white. The stop rate of Hispanic people was about even with their population in the city at 31%. The report says racial profiling “cannot be proved” based on these numbers. Elizabeth Luh, a postdoctoral fellow with the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System project at the University of Michigan, says that’s correct, but if you look at how many searches resulted in the discovery of contraband — a process called the “hit rate test” — there’s evidence of bias.

The report shows that Black residents were searched more than white and Hispanic residents despite being stopped less than both groups. Contraband was discovered on Black people who were searched by police about 60% of the time. Police found contraband on 64% of the white drivers who were searched. Of the Hispanic drivers who were searched, about 67% had contraband. “If you were to use the hit rate test, this would say that there’s bias,” Luh said. “If there wasn’t bias, then these police officers, in this case, are over-searching Black people.” Alicia Jackson, president of the advocacy organization Black Pflugerville, says she has not heard about issues with racial profiling in Pflugerville. But she says the data regarding what happens to Black drivers after they are stopped is concerning. “When you start looking at what comes after the stop — like the citations and warnings — there seems to be bias in who gets a citation versus who gets a warning versus who gets arrested,” Jackson said. “Based on this report, it looks like Black Pflugervillians have been arrested at a higher rate.” Police issued fewer citations to Black drivers than to white or Hispanic drivers but were more likely to be arrested.