Recent incarceration of black pedestrian adds to questions of arrests for non-jailable infractions

Plano police have dropped a misdemeanor charge against a black teenager who was arrested while walking home from work during the recent Texas snowstorm.

ABC News reports Rodney Reese, 18, was arrested for walking in the roadway Feb. 16 in Plano. Officers had followed Reese and then questioned him for 2 minutes. The officers stated that they were “doing an investigation” when they arrested him. 

The bodycam footage shows a short scuffle and police officers are heard saying that Reese was resisting arrest, but they didn't charge him. Reese spent the night in jail for the crime of walking in a roadway.

The case drew criticism and controversy as an example of police arresting a young black man for a non-jailable infraction.

Thousands of Texas citizens are arrested every year for minor offenses that should only incur citations and or fines, reports Lone Star Standard. Most of these arrests are for traffic violations, and race played a significant role in most of these arrests, according to a study.

"Black drivers made up nearly half of all drivers arrested on a single non-jailable transportation offense, as well as 41.1% of all people jailed for other non-jailable offenses," according to a 2016 study from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. "While approximately 70% of Harris County’s population is white, white drivers made up only 22.9% and 24% of the arrests for traffic and other non-jailable offenses, respectively."

Arrests for minor infractions are also a massive drain on state resources.

According to the study, approximately 11% of all Harris County arrests during a four-month period were for these types of misdemeanors. Of the 23,578 people arrested during the period, 2,567 were arrested for Class C misdemeanors.

"If this data is representative of the rest of the state, then tens of thousands of drivers are likely arrested for traffic infractions each year," the coalition said.

According to research from the University of Houston, 74% of Texans support ending arrests for fine-only offenses.