How
time flies when you’re having fun!
August 18, 2015, marks my one year anniversary as
the Marshall Police Chief. I cannot tell
you how fast that year has gone. I can
tell you that I have noticed that I have a lot more gray hair than I did a year
ago. It has been a great ride as we have
made many changes and implemented several ideas and concepts not tried in
Marshall. Marshall is home to a medium
size police department in a community that is diverse in nature with a
population of African Americans, white, and Hispanics. The city is one that has had to and is still
to this day dealing with racial tension.
When I told a few of my close friends that I was
headed to Marshall, Texas to lead the police department as the Chief, I was
shocked by some of the comments from some of them. One of them asked me if I recalled the old
Peace Picante Sauce commercial “Get a rope”.
He said, "They are going to hang you in the square." Another one said, "dude that place is
about 25 years behind time." When
I arrived, I was met by a department head that will remain nameless. He told me "get out of town you don't
know what you're getting yourself into."
I laughed and took the job.
As I look back on this past year it has been a year
of growth not only for the agency but me as well. When I arrived and took over the department,
I found that the department had great officers, ready to be guided and given
the opportunity to do what they have been trained to do. I always said that
back in El Paso we were behind by about five years or so, so I was shocked to see
just how behind the curve the MPD was.
It almost felt like the twilight zone, something like turning the clock
20 years backward. The amount of
micromanagement that took place was unbelievable. The citizens and the community had little to
no respect for the department; heck the officers had little respect for the
department. On my first day, I was
advised by the City Manager that a work stoppage a sort, blue flu if you will,
was taking place as the officers stopped writing citations. The first thing that I did was to meet with
the majority of the officer’s one on one.
I let them know that I would always stand by them as long as they had
done the right thing. I told them that I
would be there for them fighting for them every step of the way as long as they
did the right thing.
The next thing that I did was to address the issues
that we had with the media. It is a
proven fact that the majority of us in law enforcement look at the media as the
bad guys. The truth is that just like we
do they have a job to do as well. If you
can find and build a relationship with the media your job will become easier
during some critical times. We did this
by hosting the first ever media appreciation luncheon with members of our
local, regional, and national media outlets.
The members of the media came out and told me what they would like to
see change. After talking to them for an
hour, I could understand why they didn't care much for the Marshall PoliceDepartment.
The next thing we did was to meet with the different
ethnic groups that make up Marshall.
Let me tell you that we sure got an ear full from each group. The biggest thing I noticed was that it
didn't matter how different they were from each other they all had the same
issues. The fact that Marshall has a
deep rooted history of racial tension among the African Americans and the
whites made the job just that much tougher.
We are facing some real high racial issues with all the things going on
in Fergusson, Baltimore, and around the country made my job even tougher.
The answers to addressing the issues were not
easy. Some of the issues just needed
some common sense approaches. I could go
on and on about the issues I have faced this year, but some of you might get
tired and stop reading. So let me just
tell you, what we did to correct the issues that we faced.
*Repaired
and bridged the gap of racial division between the community and the police department.
We did this by conducting grassroots community policing and by introducing
outside the box thinking.
*Repaired
the strained relationship with the media, hosted first media open house at the
Marshall Police Department
*Restructured chain of command and staffing
levels according to needs, not wants
*Implemented an Internal Affairs Office – The
handling of citizen complaints and officer complaints as well was a major
issue. The MPD had never had a
structured way of dealing with complaints that didn’t involve the good old boy
system. I also introduced a disciplinary matrix along with the creation of the
office.
*Created the Office of Professional Standards
to obtain the Texas Police Chief's Best Practices Recognition.
*New graphics on all police patrol cars- We
did this to give the Marshall Police Department a new identity. The old logo and graphics made the police car
seem like a taxi.
*Implemented MCAT (Marshall Criminal
Apprehension Team)- This is a street
crime unit developed to address issues that are taking place in hot zones
throughout the city.
*Purchased body cameras for all officers- One
of the first East Texas cities to deploy body cameras purchased through cost
savings in our annual budget.
*Held the first “Coffee with the Chief”
community meeting to engage the community and get firsthand information about
the view the community has of the police department.
*Reintroduced
staff morale building programs such as MVP of the week, Officer, and
Civilian
of the Quarter
*Improvements to departments’ fitness center
*Evidence room inventory
*Rewriting Police Departments Policy and Procedures
to bring them up to date and follow the Texas Police Chief's Best Practices.
*Began the process to become a Texas Best
Practices Recognized Department
*Mandatory SWAT training 8 hrs. a month when
it was none existing.
*Recovered over $97,000.00 in an unpaid
warrant by conducting a warrants sweep never done before in Marshall.
*Improvements to front driveway of the
Headquarters of the MPD as people could not locate the driveway.
* Updated website and launched the use of
social media
*Reduced overall crime rate by 20% in 2014
compared to 2013
*Introduced the use of stationary checkpoints
*Cleared 10-year-old cold case with an
indictment
*Purchased Electronic Ticket writers with
red-light camera funds
*All
new programs and new purchases implemented with cost savings from approved
Budget
*Made improvements to Animal Control building
*Meeting and open dialog with all City
Commissioners to build working relationships.
*Establish
a new Marshall Police Department Policy and Procedure Manual
*Reinstitute
the take home unit policy for officers
*Corrected
the parking situation at the MPD
*Purchase
5 marked units, 1 unmarked unit, and 1 animal control unit
*Establish
Leadership course with ETBU for new supervisors and or executive leaders with
in the East Texas Law Enforcement
Community.
*Complete the build-out of the
interview rooms
*Hired
a PIO/ Accreditation Manger
*We
introduced the No Colors, No Labels Initiative
to brining racism to an end and eliminating the friction between the citizens and
the police. NCNL will attempt to stop hate, promote
diversity, eliminate prejudices and advocate for safe, inclusive communities
for all regardless of race, gender, social economic statues, or sexual
orientation.
We accomplished
this within my first year serving the great community of Marshall as their
first Hispanic Police Chief. There is
still a lot of work to get done in turning our department into the department
that is the epitome of East Texas Police Departments. We will keep moving forward
with cutting edge technologies and continue to build upon innovative strategies
to provide the citizens of Marshall with the quality of life they deserve.
I would like to
take this time to say thank you to the many members of the police department,
elected officials, and members of the community that have helped me make a
difference in Marshall, Texas. It is a
very exciting time to live and work in Marshall as true change in many forms
has finally arrived. We will keep Riding
the Wave in Marshall.
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