KHOU 11 Investigates discovered more than half of the cops in the Coffee City Police Department had been suspended, demoted or fired from their previous jobs.
Quick excerpt,
Coffee City’s budget shows the town collected more than $1 million in court fines last year. That came from more than 5,100 citations officers wrote, the most in the state for a town its size according to the Texas Office of Court Administration.
But there is more to this story than a small town writing a bunch of speeding tickets. KHOU 11 Investigates discovered Coffee City is a magnet for troubled cops. More than half of the department’s 50 officers had been suspended, demoted, terminated or dishonorably discharged from their previous law enforcement jobs, according to personnel files obtained through open records requests to other law enforcement agencies.
Those prior disciplinary actions range from excessive force, public drunkenness, untruthfulness and association with known criminals. They include:
- An officer terminated for posting a Facebook message to a citizen: “You should kill yourself, do the world a favor.”
- An officer suspended for smashing a window and entering his girlfriend’s home without consent.
- A deputy constable suspended after a burglary victim’s laptop computer was found in his home.
- A deputy constable terminated for tackling a non-resisting citizen to the ground during a traffic stop.
- A deputy sheriff terminated for slapping a handcuffed inmate without provocation.
- Two officers terminated for lying on their job applications.
As an outsider, local city based police forces sound like some medieval throwback to me.
That must be a scary town to be stuck living in. Think time FBI step in and disband that police department.
I lived across the inlet on the same lake, about 3 miles from the major bridge that they use to get most their speeding tickets - Between Frankston/Tyler, there’s a long 4-lane bridge where they park on either end. There, the speed suddenly drops, directly on the outside of the city limits. There’s always at least 2 waiting to get all the speeders coming off the bridge, and there’s nothing at the end of that bridge but a Fat Dog Liquor and a closed/burnt down café.
Can confirm, Lindale over here. It brings to mind a little village next to Alvin TX (where the FBI picked up that lady for making threatening calls)- probably the same population…only 2 cops…it’s a husband and wife combo…and he’s also the judge! Ya learn quick --> not 1 mile above the posted speed limit, and sometimes one under just to play it safe
It’s the classic rent seeking example. Like throwing a chain across a river to charge a fee for crossing it.
Police departments are just fascist welfare offices? Color me shocked.
That’s a great way of putting it.
How does a town of 250 have the funds to pay 50 police salaries?
How does a town of 250 have the funds to pay 50 police salaries?
Texas Highway 155 crosses Ledbetter Bay as it passes through Coffee City
Coffee City’s budget shows the town collected more than $1 million in court fines last year. That came from more than 5,100 citations officers wrote
So it’s literally funded by leeching. Not like most police sects aren’t, but this seems especially egregious
The town’s citizens do not want to pay taxes, so they are effectively outsourcing their costs to motorists passing by.
Sounds like a wildfire should visit that town, nothing of value would be lost.
The leech to town ratio is very high.
That’s still nowhere near enough for 50 cops with public level benefits. Even if every dollar of that goes towards the cops, at $20k/year each, it would hardly cover federal taxes on their income, let alone the income itself
Because only 12 of the 50 are full time. The rest are reserves that are used as surge for events and stuff in other cities.
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They’re not full-time:
The opportunity to wear a badge allows officers to make extra money. In the state of Texas, a commissioned reserve officer may work off-duty performing traffic control duties, commonly known as “road jobs.” Of the 50 sworn officers at the Coffee City Police Department, 38 are reserves according to state records.
Ahhh that makes more sense, but still crazy. Definitely staying out of Coffee on any road trips I take…
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“If you go back and look at the totality of the officers’ stuff, I would say 75% if not more … they’re being retaliated against from their agency,” Portillo said. “I try to look at the good in everybody and I believe everybody deserves an opportunity.”
The problem is that the police departments come down too hard on their personnel. /s
Retaliated for being bad cops, perhaps?
This is a sanctuary city for cops who should’ve been deported to prison.
A deputy sheriff terminated for slapping a handcuffed inmate without provocation.
There is no acceptable reason for slapping someone who’s cuffed. Provocation my ass.
Hey so one of the things i learned in college as a CJ major is that cops often make lateral moves in their career from one department to the next.
I bet small town departments like this only get the amount of recruits they do so they can get hired with “small town standards” and then transfer to the big city they couldn’t hope to pass an interview with.
Why does the state government permit this? I don’t think it’s a liberal vs conservative thing, because everyone thinks speed-trap towns are bullshit.
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Coptown sounds like a great SNL skit.
Enter smoky dank bar. All patrons are Popo. Bike cops play pool. All four are white, clean shaven, and wearing helmets and aviators. Detectives are at a table with handlebar mustaches and lanyard badges. Beat cops in vests are jawjacking near the bar, that the commissioner in dress uniform is tending.
Enter Snoop, blunt in mouth.
This would be an inversion of the Killing Floor novel. On the surface, this little town is terrible. Rampant police brutality, destitution, economic opportunities in the town frustrated by NIMBYs, a public easement to a national park is fenced up… Through pacifism, de-escalation, and empathy Snoop turns the town upside down. The town square is turned into a public garden, he provides therapy sessions to some of the police officers who are convinced to change jobs. When he finds out the national park isn’t accessible he helps a resident file an injunction in court against the properly owner, and by the end of the movie there is a vibrant tourism industry staffed by newly pacifist ex-cops.
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I remember movies and tv episodes from where this was the scenario.
Backwater town near a busy state or interstate traffic axis has a fuckton of cops and a tyrant of a judge/mayor.
These people rob and incarcerate travelers and some especially unlucky ones never even make it out of this town.
This another case of these inbred backwardians looking at a dystopian piece of media and thinking that looks like an awesome plan?
Rambo?
Grifting out in the open.
Seems to be a prerequisite to be hired there.
#ACAB
Texas is a shithole.
“Sworn”
Lol
I thought republicans want to ban participation trophies?
