Dallas PD: Still No Racial Profiling Here

It's that time of the year -- time for the Dallas Police Department to release its annual by-the-numbers breakdown of traffic stops officers made in 2011. Chief  David Brown himself will go to City Hall today to present the council's Public Safety Committee with the 2011 Dallas Police Department Traffic Contact Data Annual Report you'll find below, in which Brown writes in his Letter to the Citizens of Dallas that "we are confident that the information contained in this report will serve as further evidence of our commitment to fair and equitable treatment of all citizens, and that it will serve as a foundation to strengthen our bond with our community." (Which sounds familiar only because it is.)

The chart above repeats throughout the doc; and in addition to the 203,014 documented traffic stops DPD says there were an additional 580,689 "calls for service." And out of all those documented run-ins, says the department, there were just 14 complaints filed with Internal Affairs alleging racial profiling. And out of those, says the report, all were either unfounded or not sustained, though six of the the claims are still classified as "pending."

The report also looks at whether officers knew the race or ethnicity of the person being pulled over in advance of hitting the lights and siren -- a state law since January 2010, and a practice back-and-forthed by FOX News last year. Some officers say, yes, they did -- 6.66 percent. Most said nope, not at all, not me, no way, it's all content of their character here. But 14 percent of the reports filed didn't have that particular blank filled out; says the report to council, "In addressing the number of blank responses, supervisors will be held more accountable in reviewing officer's citations," though how it does not say.

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