Texas cop unions have put out a website to oppose police reform called Texas Police Facts. But the "facts" presented are mostly either anodyne distractions or pretty brazenly misrepresented. texaspolicefacts.com
Citing a DOJ-BJS study, they say "claims that minorities are substantially more likely to be contacted by the police are inaccurate." bjs.gov/content/pub/pd… Check out Tbls 3 and 4. Black folks are overrepresented in POLICE-initiated contacts; whites in crime reporting.
That same DOJ-BJS analysis concluded that "Blacks were more likely to be pulled over in traffic stops than whites and Hispanics." So the linked source directly contradicts their claim.
They declare "FACT: In Texas, law enforcement officers proven to be unfit for the job cannot jump from agency to agency," claiming TCOLE's F-5 report ensures agencies are "aware of previous misconduct."
In reality, according to the TX Sunset Commission, "In practice, the F-5 process has only resulted in nine license revocations in the last five fiscal years, despite TCOLE receiving notice of over 2,800 dishonorable discharges during the same time." sunset.texas.gov/public/uploads…
Another one: "FACT: In Texas, law enforcement agencies CAN get rid of bad cops." Somebody tell that to @SATXPolice, where 70% of cops fired get reinstated through arbitration, including a guy who fed a sandwich made of feces to a homeless man as a "joke." sanantonioreport.org/in-san-antonio…
Another "FACT" presented was that "Police use force or threat of force in less than 2% of all interactions with civilians." But given that police have MILLIONS of interactions with the public per year, that's a lot of force being used!
On their "Resources" page, they point to a study claiming police exhibit no bias in shootings which was later retracted for inadequate methodology and overstated conclusions. texaspolicefacts.com/officer-charac…
They include links to several data sources and cherrypick information from them, including the @JusticeTexas data on deaths in custody and the @TCOLE racial profiling data.
In particular, in the case of the racial profiling reports, even a cursory analysis supports claims by union critics and argues strongly for restricting police arrest powers. gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2020/12/keller…
Indeed, according to said racial profiling data, @houstonpolice use force at traffic stops far more than other, comparable agencies - e.g., 18x more than their counterparts at @SATXPolice. gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2020/11/housto…
This website and the police unions who sponsored it are using cherry-picked evidence as drunks use lamp posts ... for support rather than illumination. I hope our friends at the #txlege see through it.

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More from @Grits4Breakfast

18 Nov 20
Been digging deeper into Texas' 2019 #SandraBland data and Houston is a big outlier.

Of agencies reporting to @TCOLE under Texas' racial profiling statute, @houstonpolice account for 3% of traffic stops statewide and 29% of all use-of-force incidents reported at those stops.
HPD reported the highest use-of-force rate among large TX agencies at 71 incidents per 10K stops. Statewide avg around 8 force incidents per 10K stops. (N.b., this only captures force at traffic stops, not all UoF incidents.)

Source (columns J and HK): tcole.texas.gov/content/racial…
Together, Houston and DPS accounted for about half of reported force incidents at traffic stops statewide in 2019 (3,739 out of 7,866). But DPS performed 8x as many stops. If HPD used force at same rate as @TXDPS (5.2/10K), they'd have had >2,000 fewer force incidents last year.
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