During Monday’s Levelland City Council meeting, Levelland Police Chief Albert Garcia presented his departments racial profiling report along with a comprehensive review of the past year’s events.
The report requires the collection of information relating to motor vehicle stops in which a warning or citation is issued and arrests made as a result of those stops, including information relating to: - the race or ethnicity of the individual detained;
- whether a search was conducted and, if so, whether the individual detained consented to the search; - whether the peace officer knew the race or ethnicity of the individual detained before detaining that individual; - whether the peace officer used physical force that resulted in bodily injury during the stop; - the location of the stop; and the reason for the stop.
With a total number of stops on the year reaching 2,837, Garcia categorized the numbers by section and race.
Street address or approximate location of the stop had 2,153 city street stops, 319 U.S. Highway stops, three county road stops, 332 state highway traffic stops and 30 private property or other stops.
Stops where race or ethnicity were known totaled 29, while stops where race or ethnicity was not known totaled 2,808.
Under race and ethnicity, four stops fell under Alaska Native, American Indian. Under Asian and Pacific Islander, there were six stops.
There were 155 traffic stops falling under Black, 1,552 traffic stops categorized as White, and 1,120 traffic stops categorized as Hispanic or Latino.
By gender, there was 1,071 traffic stops in the female category and 1,766 traffic stops for males.
Under Hispanic or Latino, there were 591 traffic stops under the female group and 961 under the male group.
For the White category, there was 440 in the female group and 680 in the male group.
In the Black category, there were 36 traffic stops for females and 119 traffic stops for males.
There were 81 stops due to violation of law. In the Hispanic or Latino category, there were 56 stops, 19 stops in the White category and six stops in the black category.
There were 34 stops with preexisting knowledge. In the Hispanic or Latino category, there were 30 stops, two stops in the White category and two stops in the Black category.
There was 1,839 moving violation stops. In the Hispanic or Latino category, there were 1,016. In the White category, there were 711 and 105 in the Black category.
There were 883 stops for vehicle traffic violations. In the Hispanic or Latino category, there were 450 stops, 388 stops in the White category and 42 in the Black category.
Traffic stops where a search was conducted totaled 106. Searched stops in the Hispanic or Latino category totaled 70. In the White category there were 28 stops and eight stops total in the Black category.
There were 2,731 traffic stops where there was not a search. In the Hispanic or Latino category, there were 1,482 stops, 1,092 stops in the White category and 147 stops categorized as Black.
There were 46 consensual searches with 35 being Hispanic or Latino, eight being White, and three categorized as Black.
Listed under contraband, there were two categorized as black and one under Hispanic or Latino.
There were 56 instances under probable with 33 under Hispanic or Latino, 18 listed as White and five listed as Black.
There were 81 instances with discovered contraband. In the Hispanic or Latino category, there were 51 instances, 25 in the White category and five were in the Black category.
There were 25 instances where contraband was not discovered. In the Hispanic or Latino category, there were 19 instances, three in the White category and three in the Black category.
Contraband dealing with drugs totaled 52 instances. There were 33 instances being Hispanic or Latino, 16 being White and three being Black.
Contraband with weapons totaled two instances with both being Hispanic or Latino.
There was 12 instances with contraband labeled under alcohol. Five instances were categorized as Hispanic or Latino, five instances labeled in the White category and two instances labeled as Black.
There were 27 instances labeled as other with 18 labeled under Hispanic or Latino and nine labeled under the White category.
There were 805 verbal warnings. There were 469 instances categorized as Hispanic or Latino. There were a total of 281 instances labeled under the White category and 52 labeled under the Black category.
There were 1,426 written warnings. In the Hispanic or Latino category, there was 697 instances, 657 were in the White category and 65 were in the Black category.
There was a total of 581 citations with 368 instances being Hispanic or Latino, 176 being White and 37 being Black. There were a total of eight written warnings and arrests made. There were eight in the Hispanic or Latino category and two in the White category.
There was a total of 12 arrests with 10 being Hispanic or Latino, one being White and one being Black.
Arrests based on violation of penal code totaled 15 with 12 being Hispanic or Latino and three being White.
There were two arrests based on violation of traffic law with one being Hispanic or Latino and one being White.
Arrests based on outstanding warrants totaled eight with five being Hispanic or Latino, two being White and one being Black.
There was one instance of physical force resulting in bodily injury used during a traffic stop under the Hispanic or Latino category.
There were 2,836 instances where no physical force was used resulting in bodily injury used during a stop.
There were no reports of racial profiling submitted.
Moving forward with a 2023 Statistical Report, Garcia presented additional information for the council.
Broken down by call types, there were 3,028 traffic stops, 1,248 animal complaints, 957 informational, 781 suspicious person or vehicle, 609 phone messages, 574 business watches, 510 welfare checks and 478 disturbance calls.
Incidents by violation were broken down into percentages with 40% categorized as warrant services, 14% categorized as Assault, 9% categorized as Public Intoxication, 7% categorized as Theft between $100 and %750, 7% categorized as Burglary of Habitation, 6% categorized as Criminal Mischief, 6% categorized as Possession of a Controlled Substance Penalty Group One less than one gram, 6% categorized as Possession of Marijuana less than two ounces and 5% categorized as Theft between $750 and $2,500.
Numbers were provided regarding the offenses in the past three years.
One murder was had in 2023 while there were none in 2022 and 2021.
The number of rape instances for 2023 sit at five similar to 2022. However both years are lower than 2021 where there were 11 instances recorded.
There were 66 aggravated assault instances recorded for 2023 compared to 125 instances in 2022 and 98 in 2021.
The number of burglary instances recorded for 2023 totaled 56. That is a decrease from 80 in 2022 and 88 in 2021.
The number of larceny instances for 2023 totaled 96 compared to 174 in 2022 and 161 in 2021.
There were 18 instances of auto theft in 2023 compared to 24 in 2022 and 26 in 2021.
There is one instance of arson for 2023 compared to none in 2022 and one in 2021.
There have been no instances of human trafficking in the past three years.
A graph provided by Garcia detailed the correlation of the number of arrests made and the crime rate from 2023 to 2020.
In 2023, the number of arrests totaled 39 with a crime rate of 19.6. In 2022, there was a total of 78 arrests with a crime rate of 32.8. In 2021, there was a total of 64 arrests with a crime rate of 28.2. In 2020, there was a total of 67 arrests with a crime rate of 37.9 In regard to 2023 accident statistics, there were a total of 134 crashes involving 272 vehicles and 354 individuals.
Garcia also presented the department’s K9 statistics through 2023 with 16 instances. Out of the 16 instances there were nine arrests made with 10 instances of substances recovered including methamphetamine, heroin and THC. The K9 team has assisted the LPD, Hockley County Sheriff’s Office and Texas Department of Public Safety.
A comprehensive story will be made for the statistics for the telecommunications department and animal control department in future issues.