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Austin PD traffic stops up 30% last year, more than 1 in 20 result in arrest

How can a one-year, 30% increase in traffic stops by Austin police be justified?I could scarcely believe my eyes when I examined the City of Austin's most recent racial profiling report (pdf, published 3-2-09), and read that the number of traffic stops increased to 230,949 in 2008 from only 178,087 in 2007. Reasons given in the report for the increase were:patrol being near full staffing;the motors officers stopped taking routine calls for service and went back to working traffic enforcement full time;CompStat implementation that assigned officers to traffic enforcement in crime hotspots to increase visibility and proximity to crimes; andthe Home for the Holidays initiative that added over 4,000 additional hours of sworn working on traffic enforcement...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on June 16, 2009 (boomark / email).