Arrest Records Show Racial Disparities in Crandall Policing
Federal arrest records point to a substantial imbalance in low level arrests. Incomplete data and a steady stream of highway traffic make the findings difficult to interpret.
By Staff Reports
Arrest records reported by the Crandall Police Department show significant racial disparities in low level nonviolent arrests. The finding comes from an analysis published by the nonprofit Police Scorecard.
The database reported that Crandall police made 2,065 arrests from 2013 through 2023. It classified 1,355 of those arrests as low level and nonviolent, roughly 66 percent of the total.
Police Scorecard applies that label to drug offenses, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, vandalism, prostitution, gambling, loitering, vagrancy and other minor offenses. The category excludes violent offenses, most property crimes, weapons offenses, sex offenses and crimes against families or children.
Measured against the city’s estimated population, the analysis calculated that Black people were 163 times more likely than white people to be arrested by Crandall police for low level offenses. Latino people were calculated to be 5.4 times more likely than white people to be arrested.
Those figures identify a disparity. They do not establish why it occurred or prove that individual officers engaged in racial profiling.
A Small Population Skews the Math
The ratio between Black and white arrest rates is unusually sensitive to the population estimate behind it. Police Scorecard used a figure of 4,147 residents and estimated that Black residents made up less than 1 percent of that total.
More recent Census Bureau estimates place Crandall’s Black population closer to 3 or 4 percent. Because the original estimate produced a very small denominator, even a modest number of arrests generated an exceptionally large rate.
The calculation also compares arrests made by the department with the city’s resident population. Not everyone arrested by Crandall police necessarily lives in Crandall.
Arrest totals can include people traveling through the city and residents of surrounding communities. They can also include the same person arrested more than once. Police Scorecard does not provide residency information or identify how many unique people appear in the records.
That distinction carries particular weight in Crandall, where officers patrol stretches of heavily traveled highway.
Thousands of Stops on the Highways
More recent reports filed by the department with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement add context. The department reported 4,094 motor vehicle stops in 2023, 4,126 in 2024 and 6,388 in 2025.
Nearly half of the stops recorded in the two most recent years took place on United States highways. In 2025, Crandall police reported:
- 6,388 total motor vehicle stops
- 3,096 stops on United States highways
- 2,630 stops on city streets
- 513 stops on county roads
- 141 stops on state highways
- 42 stops that resulted in an arrest
- 454 searches
- No reported uses of physical force resulting in bodily injury during a stop
Black motorists accounted for 1,800 stops, about 28 percent of the annual total. White motorists accounted for 3,623 stops, or roughly 57 percent. Hispanic motorists accounted for 906 stops, or about 14 percent.
Officers reported knowing a driver’s race or ethnicity before 70 of the 6,388 stops. That is roughly 1.1 percent.
The department reported one stop involving physical force that caused bodily injury in 2023 and one in 2024. In both filings, an officer and the person stopped were listed as injured. No such incident was reported in 2025.
The state reports do not identify whether the motorists lived in Crandall. They also do not show how many were passing through or whether differences in driving exposure shaped the demographic totals.
A Deadly Force Entry Without Details
The Police Scorecard analysis covering 2013 through 2023 also attributed one police caused death to the Crandall department. The person was classified as unarmed and was not alleged to have possessed a gun.
The Scorecard page did not name the person or provide enough detail to confirm the circumstances through primary records. The database contained no Crandall specific information about nonfatal uses of force, excessive force complaints or discrimination complaints during the period.
Police Scorecard marked the department’s overall entry as incomplete because information was not available for every category. The deadly force entry should not be read as a full accounting of every occasion when Crandall officers used force.
Department Emphasizes Impartial Policing
The city has not published a response addressing the Police Scorecard findings.
In its current public statement, the Crandall Police Department says it emphasizes community oriented policing. The department says it is committed to enforcing laws ethically, impartially and professionally while respecting every person’s rights and dignity.
Forrest Frierson is identified as police chief on the city’s website. He is also listed as the department’s chief administrator in the 2025 state racial profiling filing.
What a Fuller Review Would Require
A complete examination of the disparities would demand far more detail than the Scorecard supplies. That includes the residency of people arrested, individual charges, arrest locations and repeat arrests.
It would also require data on encounters initiated by officers, calls for service and comparisons among people facing similar circumstances.
Even so, the available records raise legitimate questions about who experienced Crandall’s low level enforcement activity over the decade. They also raise the question of whether the department routinely reviews arrest, search and force outcomes for unequal patterns.
The numbers demonstrate a disparity. Determining its causes, and whether changes in policy, deployment or data collection are warranted, requires fuller disclosure.
