Searches in stops often find nothing

Records reveal which Texas cities have the highest rates of procedure

Deputies pulled over Joshua Langley for failing to signal a turn. They stopped John McGill’s F-150 pickup because his license plate was “faulty.” Lisa Woodruff was detained for an expired registration. Larry Turner was pulled over after running a stop sign.

Though they were stopped by Henderson County sheriff’s deputies last year for different traffic infractions, all four shared something in common: Each ended up on the side of the road while deputies searched their vehicles for contraband. None turned up anything illegal, records show.

It’s an unusually common occurrence in the community southeast of Dallas. Deputies conducted roadside searches on nearly 4 of every 10 motorists they pulled over last year, records show — one of the highest rates in Texas.

“That’s extraordinary,” said Frank Baumgartner, a University of North Carolina professor considered one of the country’s top stop-and-search experts. “It’s a very, very high number.”

Only about 1 in 3 Henderson County deputy searches uncovered any contraband, the records showed. Less than 1 in 5 resulted in an arrest.

By contrast, troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state’s busiest traffic enforcement department, searched about 5 percent of motorists they stopped in 2020.

A Hearst Newspapers investigation has identified the Texas law enforcement agencies most likely to detain and search drivers based mainly on an officer’s hunch. During traffic stops — the most common interaction between civilians and police — these

Michael Wyke / Contributor Darius Wilson is among the drivers who have been stopped by police in Cleveland, north of Houston. Last year, those officers searched nearly every driver they pulled over, records show.