Arrests are not proportionate for all races in Travis County

We are free from abuse, neglect, crime, violence and injustice.

Indicator: Proportionality of arrest demographics in Travis County to overall population

Significance of Indicator: The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS) states that disproportionality is the overrepresentation of a particular race or cultural group in a particular program or system. This phenomenon has been documented for decades in different programs. The causes of disproportionality are complex and cross many social systems.

what the data tell us

Arrests of African Americans and Hispanics was disproportionately high in Travis County in 2009. African Americans, for example, accounted for only 9% of the adult population but 24% of arrests.

Arrest Demographics Compared to Population Demographics for Travis County

Definition: Number of bookings into the Travis County jail for each racial/ethnic group divided by the total number of bookings into the Travis County jail, the population of each racial/ethnic group that is 18 and older divided by the total 18 and over population in 2009

Data Source: Travis County Criminal Justice Planning Department, American Community Survey

Data Considerations: Persons 17 and older may be booked into the Travis County jail. Solid estimates of the population of 17 years olds by race/ethnicity are not available on a yearly basis, and so 17 year olds are not included in the population data.

The Story Behind the indicator

While Travis County has racial and ethnic disproportionality in arrests, there is also disproportionality in our drug imprisonment rates. It is important to remember, though, that disproportionality cuts across systems in our community, and law enforcement alone should not be held responsible for this indicator. For instance, the Austin Independent School District (AISD) disproportionately removes African American students from classrooms and Child Protective Services is grappling with high removal rates of African American children from their homes. To learn more about the story behind the disproportionality in our community, click here.

Some local efforts to improve this indicator

Local law enforcement entities have implemented multiple outreach strategies to work with minority youth in the community including utilizing school resource officers, Police Activity Leagues, Police Explorer programs, and prevention activities associated with the Joint Juvenile Gang Unit (Austin Police Department, Travis County Sheriff's Office and AISD).
The Austin Disproportionality Advisory Committee was created to assist the TDFPS with the implementation and monitoring of the impact of the strategies to address disproportionality issues in child protective services related to child removal and return to families.
AISD and other area school districts have implemented Positive Behavior Supports to help reduce disproportionate school discipline referrals.

A Closer look at the story behind the indicators

In general, disciplinary rates continue to decrease across instructional levels, disciplinary actions, and disaggregated groups, but the disciplinary action rates of African American students continue to be greater than their peers. During the 2009-2010 school year, African Americans constituted 34% of removals to Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEP) for discretionary reasons, 23% of removals to DAEP for mandatory reasons, but only 11% of the student population.

Disciplinary Rate Demographics for AISD Compared to Student Demographics

Definition: The number of discretionary DAEP placements for African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites divided by the total number of discretionary DAEP placements; the number of mandatory DAEP placements for African Americans, Hispanics, and Whites divided by the total number of mandatory DAEP placements; and the number of African American, Hispanic, and White students divided by the total number of students. Mandatory removals are offenses committed by a student that requires that a student be removed to the DAEP. Examples may include: engaging in conduct punishable as a felony, committing assault with injury, selling or possessing a controlled substance, possessing a bb gun, air gun or a home made weapon, repeated gang related activity. Discretionary removals give the campus administrators the option of removing the student to the ALC or keeping him or her enrolled in the home campus. Examples may include: involved in serious misbehavior ( offenses that pose physical danger to the student, others or property) or persistent misbehavior (two or more violations of the student code of conduct in general or repeated occurrences of the same violation), involved in a gang or soliciting another person to become a member of a gang (1st offense).

Data Source: Texas Education Agency

Data Considerations: Disciplinary rate counts are not reported on this graph for Asians, Native Americans, or for the discretionary DAEP placements of Whites due to low numbers. Counts of less than five are not reported by the Texas Education Agency to protect the identity of students.

In 2005, African Americans in Travis County were removed from their homes by Child Protection Services (CPS) 1.5% more than White children. By 2008, that number had declined to 0.8%.

Definition: The difference between African Americans and Whites in proportion of CPS's decisions to remove children from their homes.

Data Source: Texas Department of Family and Protective Services

Data Considerations: The data from 2005 was collected at a time before CPS began implementing strategies to reduce disproportionality of removals. The data from 2008 was collected after CPS had already begun implementing such strategies.

Difference Between African American and Anglo Child Removal Rates