The Arlington City Council held a special meeting on February 24, 2026, convening in executive session at 1:18 p.m. to discuss legal, real estate, personnel, and economic development matters. The work session began at 3:02 p.m. and covered racial profiling analysis, housing tax credit applications, the city's sesquicentennial celebration, and community-strengthening initiatives. The meeting adjourned at 4:43 p.m. No formal votes were taken during the work session; key items were slated for the evening consent agenda.
Okay. Let's go ahead and call the afternoon session to order. I came straight from the airport here, right? I was like, don't pick me up, or I'm calling you. Okay, we're gonna go ahead and call the afternoon session back to order. It is three oh two PM. And the afternoon session is now back to order. Three point one, Chief. We're all yours. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Council. Uh Mayor Council. I'm Al Jones, I'm the chief of police. Uh, today we're uh presenting the annual racial profiling analysis report, uh, which we are required to uh present to our governing body every year. Uh for the last several years we have contracted with uh Del Carmen consulting LOC conduct our analysis. Uh Dr. Del Carmen is a national recognized expert in the field of racial profiling. Unfortunately, he can't be here with us in person. Uh however, he is joining us on Teams and uh he's snowed in in New England. Uh so again, thank you, Dr. Del Common, for uh joining us. Uh, as we all, as you all aware, uh, one of the primary causes to mistrust within uh communities is either the actual perceived incidence of racial profiling. Uh, this is sometime uh it takes uh we you know, we really take this very serious, and we're committed to transparency and countability for our practices. Uh this report shows that our officers are effectively managing their responsibility while maintaining a positive interaction. Uh I'll now turn the presentation over to Assistant Chief Leland Striction, who uh oversees the uniform officer who conduct traffic stops throughout the city. So thanks. Thanks, Chief. Thank you, Chief. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council, Leland Strickland Assistant Chief over our department's patrol bureau. Today it is my honor to present you with the Arlington Police Department twenty twenty-five racial profiling report and analysis. At your places, you will find a hard copy of the report. Members of our community may also obtain a copy of the report, both on the City of Arlington City Council website as well as the Arlington Police Department website. During today's presentation, I will briefly discuss the statutory framework that prohibits the act of racial profiling as well as the Arlington Police Department policy that provides clear guidance and directly mirrors state law on this topic. We will define racial profiling and contrast it to the legitimate practice of criminal profiling. Explain the standardized approach that is employed by Arlington Police Department officers on all traffic stops and why that standardization is important. Explain how the department seeks feedback from our community on every stop, discuss the kind of data that the department collects and analyzes. And then finally, I will discuss highlights from the 2025 analysis. As the chief said, the report was created by Dr. Alex Del Carmen. Dr. Del Carmen is a nationally recognized leading expert on racial profiling and police reform. He has specifically served as the independent auditor for our racial profiling data for over a decade. We are honored to help to have a man of Dr. Del Carmen's caliber and credibility to help our department as we maintain accountability on this topic. As the chief already said, due to the magnitude of the recent winter storm in the New England area, Dr. Dill Carmen is joining us by remote connection today because he's frankly he's just snowed in. So he's a he's online and he'll be available for comment as we go through this presentation. The Texas Racial Profiling Law was established in 2001 when Senate Bill 1074 amended the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. It strictly prohibited law enforcement from engaging in racial profiling, defining it as a law enforcement initiated action that is based on race or ethnicity rather than on behavior or specific suspect information.