Consultant presents Forney 2024 racial profiling report; finds most searches produced contraband, recommends continued audits and training

Dr. Alex Del Carmen presented the Forney City Council with the Forney Police Department's 2024 racial profiling final report and recommended continued data collection, quarterly audits and officer training to maintain compliance with the Sandra Bland Act.

Del Carmen told the council the department recorded three written complaints in 2024 that were investigated and reported as not sustained, and that the department is meeting Sandra Bland Act requirements for informing people how to file compliments or complaints at the time of a motor-vehicle contact. He said most motor-vehicle contacts in 2024 were with males and that most stops occurred on city streets and resulted in verbal warnings rather than arrests.

"Most of your searches resulted in contraband," Del Carmen said, adding that most contraband was drugs. He said the contraband hit rate matters because searches that produce contraband are typically considered legitimate searches in civil-rights and prosecutorial contexts.

Del Carmen also described the challenge of selecting a baseline for comparative analysis in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where a high share of citations are issued to nonresidents. He said the department's rates for contacts with White, Hispanic and Asian residents were lower than those groups' share of the local population, while contacts with African Americans and Alaska Natives were higher than their population shares. He noted that roughly 40% of searches of African Americans in Forney yielded contraband, which he said indicates probable cause was often present for searches.

Del Carmen said the department has revised its policy, is collecting enhanced Tier 2 data, and has asked his team to perform ongoing assessments. "I call it like it is," he said, describing his 27 years of work evaluating racial-profiling data and training police leaders. He recommended the council continue mandated data reporting and to provide refresher training so officers remain familiar with Sandra Bland Act expectations.

Council offered no substantive questions in the transcript following the presentation. The report packet provided to council included the 2024 motor-vehicle contact data and a deeper analysis of 2023 data, per Del Carmen's recommendation.

Why it matters: The Sandra Bland Act requires Texas law enforcement agencies to collect detailed data on motor-vehicle contacts and to make certain complaint mechanisms available; council review and follow-up can influence police training and local transparency efforts.

What's next: Del Carmen recommended continued quarterly audits and targeted training; the chief and Del Carmen said they would coordinate follow-up if future audits show issues.