GPD data shows substantial increase in traffic stops as key stats stay in check

Gladewater Police Department is making progress, Chief Kyle Ready says simply.
By the numbers, the agency saw a 60 percent increase in traffic stops last year compared to 2024. They’ve more than doubled since 2023.
“We’ve seen a substantial increase in proactive patrolling engagement,” he told Gladewater City Council members last month, sharing the department’s ‘Use of Force’ and ‘Racial Profile Reports’ submitted to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
Technology, Ready added, is ensuring his personnel aren’t saddled with so much paperwork it holds them back from the streets.
“That’s all got to do with the mobile CAD system we have,” he said. The Computer Aided Dispatch was long-in-coming, but worth it: “They’re able to stay out in the field more and be seen.”
Notably, 2025 saw zero Use of Force reports resulting from traffic stops and there were zero Racial Profiling Complaints filed with the state.
“We can’t get better than zero,” councilman William Blackmon praised.
There were two UOF reports in 2024 and 2023, one in 2022.
Proud of the null result, “We triple checked that,” Ready replied, with Lt. Freddy Fitzgerald pulling every case file to ensure the numbers were accurate.
“That’s pretty good for having that many more traffic stops,” said Gladewater City Manager Charlie Smith, a former police chief, himself.
“Very proud of that,” Ready said.
Out of 2,685 total stops, 45 percent were on a city street compared to 49 percent on a U.S. Highway.
In the vast majority of stops (94 percent) the driver’s race/ethnicity was not known to the officer prior to the interaction.
The majority (64 percent) were male drivers and 65.5 percent were White. A little more than 21 percent of those stopped were Black, and 11.3 percent were Hispanic.
A ‘moving traffic violation’ was responsible for 72 percent of the stops (versus a ‘vehicle traffic violation’).
Searches were conducted in 2.5 percent of cases. Contraband was discovered in 47 incidents – 35 cases were drugs, three were weapons, nine involved alcohol and eight were listed as ‘other.’
Written warnings were issued 59 percent of the time (1,586 stops) compared to citations in 39.6 percent of cases. There were 17 incidents of written warnings and arrests; 17 were citation and arrest – 25 of those were due to outstanding warrants.
From the report, “Was physical force resulting in bodily injury used during the stop?”
No – there were zero reports and zero complaints of racial profiling.