Date
4-18-2025
Department
Helms School of Government
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice (PhD)
Chair
Marc Weiss
Keywords
Operation Lone Star, racial profiling, Hispanics, Rio Grande Valley, Texas Department of Public Safety
Disciplines
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Salinas, Veronica G., "Unveiling the Detrimental Effects of Racial Profiling on Hispanics in the RGV by DPS Under Operation Lone Star" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 6763.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/6763
Abstract
The purpose of this applied study was to solve the problem of whether racial profiling by DPS on the Hispanic community in the RGV was indeed an ongoing issue that was causing adverse impacts. Moreover, to design better training for DPS troopers to address the problem of racial profiling against Hispanics. The setting of this study was based on Hispanics born or raised in the RGV. Interviews and focused groups were used to collect data. The MAXQDA was used to help analyze and identify common themes. The two main common themes were positive and negative experiences, with 11 out of the 20 participants incurring a positive feeling with the increased OLS strategies in the RGV. The research indicated that racial profiling is not an ongoing issue. Instead, a minority of the participants felt racially profiled. Future research would be beneficial on this same topic with various ethnicities and demographics to determine whether racial profiling is indeed not a widespread issue in the RGV and if it is more widespread than the study let on. Even though the study indicated that racial profiling is not a significant issue, ethics training for DPS would still be necessary because there are Hispanics who feel like DPS has racially targeted them.
