Failed collection effort, spotty data undermine Texas’ racial profiling law

Texas’ racial profiling laws are meant to root out policing that targets people of color. The laws have been on the books for 20 years and require law enforcement agencies each year to collect their traffic stop data in a report, comparatively analyze that information and submit the report and analysis to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, or TCOLE. A KXAN investigation found TCOLE, the state’s central repository, failed to mandate and collect the data analysis and opted not to use its enforcement authority. In hundreds of instances, racial profiling data is missing from its database.