A new report is highlighting racial disparities in drug arrests in Travis County.
Four groups – the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Texas Harm Reduction Alliance, Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law and Grassroots Leadership – analyzed low-level drug arrests in 2017 and 2018. Their data showed even though African Americans make up 8.9% of the county's population, they account for 29.4% of drug possession arrests.
The report also found more than half of those arrests stemmed from traffic stops. Read more here.
Last week, the City released a separate report that showed Austin police are pulling over and arresting people of color at disproportionally higher rates than white drivers. City leaders told KVUE that data confirmed a problem the City has been trying to fix.