All figures = percentages
| WHITE | BLACK | HISPANIC | OTHER | |
| Austin population | 52.9 | 9.8 | 30.2 | 6.8 |
| Austin drivers (*est.) | 64.6 | 8.3 | 21.0 | 5.1 |
| Traffic stops | 52.0 | 13.0 | 31.0 | 4.0 |
| Searches arising from traffic stops | 31.7 | 23.2 | 44.1 | 0.9 |
| Searches as % of stops | 5.5 | 15.9 | 12.4 | 2.0 |
| Consent searches as % of searches | 11.7 | 18.0 | 13.4 | – |
| Consent searches leading to seizure | 13.5 | 13.6 | 10.2 | – |
| Pedestrian stops | 45.5 | 27.4 | 26.3 | 0.7 |
| Searches arising from ped stops | 38.1 | 33.9 | 27.3 | 0.7 |
| Searches as % of stops | 23.9 | 35.4 | 29.7 | 23.8 |
| Consent searches as % of searches | 22.5 | 29.9 | 21.7 | – |
| Consent searches leading to seizure | 17.7 | 23.3 | 17.8 | – |
* Fair Road Standards estimate
The 2003 APD data shows a racial breakdown of traffic stops that is comparable to Austin’s population, but minorities were stopped at rates higher than their estimated proportion of Austin drivers. As for pedestrian stops, blacks were stopped far more often, and other ethnic groups less often, than their presence in the population.
Minorities are also more likely to be searched when stopped; although more than half of traffic-stop subjects are white, more than two-thirds of all searched subjects are black or Hispanic. Blacks were subjected to search in traffic stops three times as often as whites and were also more often subjected to controversial “consent searches.” The same patterns held true for pedestrian stops.
This article appears in March 26 • 2004.