Gov. Greg Abbott is facing criticism — including from the Highland Park Police Department — after answering a question about the potential for racial profiling near the Mexican border by talking about white motorists being pulled over in some of Texas' wealthiest areas.

Speaking with reporters during a wide-ranging briefing on the 2017 legislative session on Tuesday, Abbott pointed to Highland Park and Memorial Villages — a wealthy six-city Houston enclave — saying that, because of strict policing, "most of the people who get pulled over there are Anglo."

He continued: "In each of those high-end, real estate locations, you're going to find a greater law-enforcement presence. You're going to find, if you go into the Villages in Houston, Texas, that if you go one mile an hour over the speed limit, you're going to get pulled over."

Abbott's "key point," he said, was that "people want to live in and do business in places where there's law enforcement presence."

Lt. Lance Koppa (2014 File Photo/Staff)

Lt. Lance Koppa, a Highland Park police spokesman, scoffed at the notion that his department would pull someone over for going a mile over the speed limit, as did Memorial Villages police Chief J.D. Sanders.

"Most of our residents abide by the law. So the people that usually don't … typically are people that are domestically employed here," Sanders said. "Landscapers … housekeepers and things like that. And they are not Anglos for the large part."

More than half of the 2,000 motorists stopped in Memorial Villages last year were minorities, and Sanders added that his officers wouldn't make a stop for barely exceeding the speed limit.

Abbott's remarks struck a nerve with Garnet Coleman, a Democrat in the Texas House who has challenged Texas officials over whether state troopers have profiled drivers during an $800 million border-security operation.

An increase in traffic stops in border counties after Texas deployed additional troopers has led to allegations of drivers being harassed by law-enforcement officials, something state officials have denied.

Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said Abbott was probably being glib on Tuesday but also said motorists being pulled over for minor infractions near the border has been a problem.

Coleman, who is black and whose district includes Houston, said Abbott missed what he thinks is the real issue: what happens to drivers once they've been pulled over.

Last year's arrest of Sandra Bland, a black woman who died in an small-town East Texas jail after a traffic stop, along with the deployment of state troopers to the border, reignited worries about law-enforcement officials profiling motorists

Abbott's answer Tuesday was "either a naive answer or a deflection answer," Coleman said. "Either one is bad."

The Texas Department of Public Safety says it has received 40 racial-profiling complaints since 2009, only one of which resulted in officer discipline.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.