Racial profiling report given

Jacksboro Police Chief Scott Haynes gave his annual racial profiling report to the city council during their March 22 meeting.

The department made 1,408 traffic stops during the year 2020, 27 of those resulted in a search of the vehicle. 78 percent of the stops were for white driver’s, 16 percent Hispanic, and five percent Black.

Haynes says he’s most proud not having any complaints about racial profiling which he said reflects on the quality people the department hires. Haynes said the last formal complaint against any employee was back in November 2017 and that individual is no longer with the department.

Both the city and county have seen slight decreases in population according to the recent Census. Haynes said the department has tried to be responsive to citizen complaints concerning speeding on W.Belknap. He said tickets were written throughout the previous weekend.

City Manager Mike Smith told the council plans to widen State Highway 59 to the bridge are being hindered by a raw water line that parallels the bridge. TxDOT informed the city the line needs to be encased but to do it in concrete would be too close to widen the street.

“Steel would cost $63,000 and would allow if the pipe would somehow break, we could just slide out the casing,” Smith explained. “It doesn’t slow the project down but puts pressure on TXDOT to get the job done on time.”

The council also approved entering into an agreement with Hilltop Securities to refinance certificates of obligations from 2008 and 2011.

Nick Bulaish from Hilltop said refinancing could save the city around $195,700. Alderman Craig Fenter asked if doing this would hurt the city’s credit rating was was told no. Smith said all of the city’s debit is going down with no bond election being held for more than 10 years.