Anal ysis and Int er pr et at ion
The Texas legislature , in 2001 , passed Senate Bill 1074 which became the Texas Racial Profiling Law . This particular law came into effect on January 1 , 2002 and required all police departments in Texas , to collect traffic-related data and report this information to their local governing authority by March 1st of each year . This law remained in place until 2009 , when it was modified to include the collection and reporting of all motor vehicle related contacts where a citation was issued or an arrest made . Further , the modification to the law further requires that all police officers indicate whether or not they knew the race or ethnicity of individuals before detaining them . Further , it became a requirement that agencies report motor vehicle related data to their local governing authority and to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement ( TCOLE ) by March 1st of each year . The purpose in collecting and disclosing this information has been to determine if police officers , in a particular municipality , are engaging in the practice of racially profiling minority motorists .
In addition , the Texas Racial Profiling Law requires police departments to interpret motor vehicle-related data . Even though most researchers would probably agree with the fact that it is within the confines of good practice for police departments to be accountable to the citizenry while carrying a transparent image before the community , it is very difficult to determine if individual police officers are engaging in racial profiling , from a review and analysis of aggregate / institutional data . In other words , it is challenging for a reputable researcher to identify specific ? individual ? racist behavior from aggregate-level ? institutional ? data on traffic or motor vehicle-related contacts .
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