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Sheriff Sal Rivera
Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera presented the annual Racial Profiling Report at Commissioners Court on Monday.
Sheriff Rivera said in summary, there were no complaints of racial profiling in the county and the break down on the census information places the Hispanic/Latino population at 65.9% to 65.7%.
Rivera reported that Sheriff’s Office does not practice racial profiling on its traffic stops or any other law enforcement activities.
“If there are any complaints about racial profiling, people can contact the Sheriff’s Office and speak with Chief Deputy Michael Pantoja who handles the complaints,” said Rivera.
Each year, Rivera is required to file the report by March 1 and meet specific requirements for the State of Texas, which includes clearly defined actions that constitute racial profiling; statement indicating prohibition of any peace officer employed by the Sheriff’s Office from engaging in racial profiling, process for filing complaints and education related to complaint process and disciplinary guideline for officers found in violation.
Total stops for the year were 1,277, with 267 on city street; 573 on US highways; 413 on state highways; and 24 on county roads. In five out of the total number, race was known prior to the stop. Broken down, there were 840 stops for Hispanic/Latino, 381 for Whites, 52 for Blacks, three for Asian/Pacific and one, American Indian. There were 407 females and 870 males stopped.
The primary reason for stops was moving traffic violations (1,013), vehicle traffic violation (214), violation of law (25), and pre-existing knowledge (25).
There were 149 searches conducted during stops, 79 with consent and 54 with probable cause. Contraband was found in 89 of the searches, with 42 resulting in drugs, 26, alcohol, and 21, other.
Result of stop included 15 verbal warnings, 784 written warnings, 439 citations, four written warnings and arrest, 71 citation and arrest, and 75 ar rests. Physical force resulting in bodily injure occurred in one of the total stops. No complaints were filed.
The report also includes U.S. Census Bureau data for 2020 Castro County population and U.S. Census State and County Quick Facts, July 1, 2019 population estimates.
The 2020 Decennial Census showed the county population at 7,371, down from 2010 at 8,062, with race/ethnicity breakdowns being White, 3,676 (49%), Black, 108 (2.0%), American Indian, 58 (0.8%), Asian, 22 (0.3%), Pacific Islander, four (0.1%), Other, 1,542 (20.8%), Two or more, 1,971 (26.7%) and Ethnicity – Hispanic or Latino, 4,784 (64.9%).