Texas DPS Ends Valley Roadblocks

A newspaper analysis shows that two Texas border counties singled out for traffic checkpoints have lower crash rates than other big areas where state authorities didn’t setup disputed roadblocks.

The Texas Department of Public Safety announced this weekend it was ending the roadblocks after three weeks. Critics had accused the agency of targeting poor communities with large numbers of undocumented immigrants.

DPS cited roadway safety as the reason why troopers randomly stopped motorists throughout the Rio Grande Valley. The checkpoints were the first in in Texas in two decades.

But the Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday that the Rio Grande Valley trails behind cities like Houston and Midland in crashes per mile traveled.

DPS spokesman Tom Vinger says crash data wasn’t used as a deciding factor for checkpoint locations.