STATE OF TEXAS
COUNTY OF TARRANT
TARRANT COUNTY RACIAL PROFILING POLICY
WHEREAS, Senate Bill 1074 was recently passed by the Legislature of the State of Texas prohibiting a peace officer from engaging in racial profiling;
WHEREAS, Senate Bill 1074 requires that not later than January 1st, 2002, a law enforcement agency covered by the law must adopt and implement a policy and begin collecting information under the policy;
WHEREAS, the Tarrant County Sheriff and the Constables of Tarrant County are now adopting, before the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, a policy prohibiting racial profiling by their agencies;
NOW, THEREFORE, the Tarrant County Sheriff and the Constables of Tarrant County (hereinafter collectively referred to as “agencies”) adopt the following policy:
Section 1.
Racial profiling is defined as any law
enforcement-initiated action based on an individual’s race, ethnicity,
or national origin rather than on the individual’s behavior or on
information identifying the individual as having engaged in criminal activity.
Section 2.
All peace officers employed by the agencies
are strictly prohibited from engaging in racial profiling. All law
enforcement-initiated actions, which include all investigative
detentions, traffic stops, arrests, searches and seizures of persons
and/or property shall be based on a standard of reasonable suspicion
or probable cause as required by law. All peace officers of the
agencies must be able to articulate specific facts, circumstances and
conclusions, which support probable cause or reasonable suspicion for
the investigative detention, traffic stop or arrest.
Section 3.
All peace officers employed by the agencies
shall not consider an individual’s race, ethnicity, or national origin
in establishing either reasonable suspicion, probable cause or as a
basis for requesting consent to search the individual or his or her property.
Section 4.
All peace officers employed by the Tarrant
County Sheriff’s Office must “check out” via radio on every vehicle or
subject stop. At the conclusion of each stop, the peace officer will
complete either a computerized or written form, capturing all data
elements required to be obtained by law. This information will then be
uploaded from the MDC to a computer database (if a computerized form)
or manually inputted into a computer database (if a written form).
Section 5.
No peace officer employed by the agencies
will conduct a search of a person or vehicle after peace
officer-initiated contact without completing a written report
detailing the search and the facts supporting it. In the event no
offense or arrest report is appropriate, a Miscellaneous Incident
report will be completed.
Section 6.
If an individual believes that a peace
officer employed by any of the agencies has engaged in racial
profiling with respect to the individual then the following complaint
process shall govern:
Section 7.
The agencies will provide public education
relating to the agencies complaint process via the Tarrant County web
site located at www.tarrantcounty.com.
Section 8.
Appropriate corrective action will be taken
against a peace officer employed by the agencies who, after an
investigation, is shown to have engaged in racial profiling in
violation of this policy.
Section 9.
The agencies will collect information as
required by law relating to traffic stops in which a citation is
issued and to arrests resulting from those traffic stops, including
information relating to:
Section 10.
Each agency will submit to the Tarrant
County Commissioners Court an annual report of the information
collected pursuant to Section 9 above. Each agency shall first submit
information to the Tarrant County Commissioners Court on March 1,
2003. The first submission of information shall consist of information
compiled by each agency during the period beginning January 1, 2002,
and ending December 31, 2002. The report may not include identifying
information about a peace officer who makes a traffic stop or about an
individual who is stopped or arrested by a peace officer.
THIS POLICY is effective the 18th day of December, 2001.
County Telephone Operator 817-884-1111
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100 E. Weatherford, Fort Worth, Texas 76196
Copyright 2001-2019 Tarrant County, TX