Nearly half of state troopers hired by Texas' Department of Public Safety over the last 18 months are Latino, according to analysis by the Dallas Morning News.

More than 40 percent of the 450 newly trained people working for the DPS are of Hispanic descent, the highest such percent hired over the last decade.

"It's Police 101," said Robert "Duke" Bodisch, DPS deputy director of homeland security and services. "You want diversity within your force so you can go out into different communities and be able to relate and have people be able to relate back to you."

The newspaper found Hispanics made up just 25 percent of Texas troopers in 2006, compared to 30 percent this year; white troopers currently make up 59 percent. This, despite housing 18.8 percent of all Latinos in the U.S., the nation's second-largest population behind California, and about 4.8 million eligible voters, as of 2014.

Breaking Language-Barriers

Police agencies across the country are making similar changes to keep up with the country's ever-growing Hispanic population, though they often face language barriers. State troops periodically call Spanish-speaking Border Patrol agents to traffic stops because they cannot converse with the driver. Residents have complained about the validity of these stops and, as the University of North Carolina found, racial disparities in who gets pulled over.

UNC researchers found the DPS "consistently misinterpreted" statistics breaking down the proportion of whites, blacks, and Hispanics subject to traffic stops from 2002 to 2014. White search rates were lower than blacks. The DPS also compared white and Hispanic traffic stop rates without citing a reason for the stop.

The benefit for Texas officials is gaining trust within Hispanic communities. As for new state troopers, they can earn more than $60,000 a year, regardless of previous police experience.

Financing Texas' Border Security Efforts

In June 2015, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott approved $800 million for border security that included a new border crime data center, a 5,000-acre training facility, and a $7.5 million plane to scan for border activity. A portion of the funds went to hiring 250 new state troopers.

Solidifying the border was imperative to Abbott. Aside from curbing incoming drugs and undocumented immigrants, the first-term governor wanted to fill some 200 DPS job vacancies. A large budget and increased recruitment efforts in South Texas ended the shortage.

Instead of rotating English-speaking troopers in and out of Spanish-speaking neighborhoods, the DPS now has the manpower break these language barriers.

"I'm from East Texas," Texas DPS Officers Association President Gary Chandler told the Dallas Morning News. "When I get sent down to the border, it's like I'm in a whole 'nother country."