Groves Police present 2024 racial‑profiling and crime reports; totals down from prior year

Groves — The Groves Police Department presented two annual reports to the City Council on Feb. 24: the racial‑profiling report submitted to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) and the department’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for 2024.

Chief Marshall told the council that state rules require agencies to submit racial‑profiling data and that Groves’s numbers have not shown a disproportionate number of stops, searches or arrests of minorities. He said the department uploads stop data from officers’ traffic‑enforcement reports and that those reports are publicly posted on TCOLE’s website.

On crime statistics, Marshall said the department recorded 244 total reported incidents in 2024, down from 265 the previous year, and described the clearance rate as remaining at “acceptable levels.” He said violent‑crime categories showed a slight increase but remained within expected margins when compared with regional and statewide data; property crimes including theft and burglary showed slight declines.

Marshall said the department emphasizes fair and impartial policing, randomized supervisory reviews of stop data and use of heat‑map software to review enforcement locations. He also noted the department continues recruitment and training efforts and that one murder from the year had an arrest reported in the follow‑up.

Councilors asked whether the profiling data included all stops; Marshall confirmed the dataset includes every traffic stop that officers record, whether it resulted in a citation, warning or arrest.