Study spotlights Houston County's arrests of blacks under 'felony driving law'
Blacks are arrested disproportionately in Houston County under Georgia's "felony driving law," according to a new study by two nonprofits that advocate for civil rights.
The study was released Wednesday by the Advancement Project and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. The nonprofits are calling for a repeal of a Georgia law that makes driving without a state-issued driver's license a felony.
According to the study, blacks make up 28.15 percent of the population in Houston County but represented 64.96 percent of the population arrested for driving without a license or on a revoked or suspended license. The study looked at traffic citations issued by the Houston County Sheriff's Office for driving unlicensed or with a suspended or revoked license under the felony driving law from June 1, 2011 through June 1, 2015
In contrast, whites make up 60.78 percent of the county's population but represented 31.67 percent of similar arrests, the study found. Also, the study found that Hispanics account for 6.04 percent of the population but represent 2.96 percents of arrests for driving with no license or on a suspended or revoked license.
Flavia Jimenez, senior attorney and project director of immigrant justice with the Advancement Project, said she was surprised by the disproportionate number of blacks arrested in Houston County.
She said she thinks Hispanic arrests are under-reported because the sheriff's office does not make a distinction in its data collection for that segment of the population. They are categorized with whites. The study looked at drivers' surnames to develop its arrest numbers for Hispanics in Houston County, Jimenez said.
"(The study) says that this particular law and its implementation has racial impact, does impact people of color disproportionately," Jimenez said. "Also, when we dig a little deeper into some of the anecdotal evidence and some of the personal stories we have heard, it tells me that it impacts across the board just low-income communities with harsh penalties for an act that does not cause any harm to an individual or to property."
Among the recommendations of the report is that "local sheriffs must ... cease to racially profile communities of color."
Longtime Houston County Sheriff Cullen Talton said he has not had an opportunity to review the study, but he says his department hasn't done anything improper.
"We don't racially profile," he said.
Talton noted that the sheriff's office uses tag readers, equipment on police vehicles that automatically scans vehicle tags and alerts the officer of violations such as suspended or revoked licenses.
"What are we supposed to do?" Talton asked. "If someone has a suspended license, just let them go?"
The Rev. Francys Johnson, a Statesboro attorney who is president of the Georgia National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he was not surprised by the numbers.
"We knew that the proponents of this law thought that they were going to be targeting undocumented Americans, but what they did was underscore reasons we should not adopt policies aimed at any group of Americans because of their immigration status or race or any of those other kinds of areas that are suspect under our laws and under our Constitution," Johnson said.
"And so, it has had the unintended consequence of touching many people and many communities, including African Americans as well as poor whites. That is the consequence of this law, is that we're driving poor people further into poverty," he said.
Johnson said the law is not aimed at the safety of motorists but "at giving people felonies so that they can be deported." He said the fines and fees exceed "any reasonableness in regards to the severity of their infraction."
"This makes communities less safe, because it drives a wedge further between these communities and the police that have to serve and protect them," Johnson said.
The study also looked at arrests under the law in Fayette County and the city of Roswell for the same time period and also found disparities.
Houston County, the city of Roswell and Fayette County were spotlighted based on reports to the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights' toll-free hotline for families to provide information and receive help related to arrests by Immigration Customs Enforcement. The nonprofit noted in the report that those who have misdemeanor or felony convictions for driving without a license but have no other criminal offenses are increasingly being arrested by ICE.
To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559, or find her on Twitter@becpurser.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled the first name of an attorney. Flavia Jimenez is the senior attorney and project director of immigrant justice with the Advancement Project.
This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Study spotlights Houston County's arrests of blacks under 'felony driving law' ."