Editors Note: The following was submitted by an Officer with the El Paso Police Department. We are publishing their piece just as it was submitted.

We continue to share voices from within EPPD in hopes of help clear the corruption, and criminals with badges from the department.

If you would like to add your voice, email [email protected] – WE WILL NEVER REVEAL YOUR IDENTITY TO ANYONE.

“The Truth is a Hard Pill to Swallow”

It’s been a long, exhausting week at work, and the external factors of dealing with patrol calls never seem to stop. I look at the onboard computer system inside my patrol unit, and the calls multiply by the minute. I am at the end of my rope trying to play catch up; everything I try to do is never good enough—the internal bickering of other Officers frustrated with their lives and their careers. The report writing program is constantly failing, and our pop-out radios are crackling, causing concerns about being unable to ask for help when and if you need Officers. The constant low morale and the personnel are getting less and less every day. Officers are calling in to have some time off because of stressors associated with the job! There is constant hounding of supervisors who want more and more out of you with less and less assistance. The constant errors and mistakes on reports must be rectified while you are trying to book people into the County, but all you can see is a long line of aggressive prisoners that you are responsible for because you were awarded the transport unit for the day.

The uncertainty of what the day brings to you when you show up for shift meetings is a common theme for most Officers. The days of showing up to work ready to “fire” with the hunger to do a good job are simply a faded memory. But we are told to suck it up, buttercup; you signed up for this; deal with it! It feels as if a dark, menacing cloud is hanging over us as we pick up and scan out our gear, ready to answer calls for the next 10 hours.

But most cops know that the 10 hours is a wishful attempt to stay positive. It’s that one late call, a rollover accident, a robbery, or an assault in progress call that will keep you hanging on for another few hours as you wait for possible relief that never comes because the other shift is also struggling with the lack of bodies on their shift!

It has taken a toll on our emotional and mental health, but the saddest factor of all is that despite the hassles of the uncertainty of each day, nothing tares down your morale more than the lack of support from the second floor. I read an article posted on your site of an Officer who voiced their opinion on what they are experiencing, and that Officer spelled it out. We are sick and tired of being the scapegoats of this Department. Patrol is not the issue. It’s the safety net for the community; we are the protectors, and we answer the call that could very well take our life, but we do it because we believe that there is still merit in what we do; we have to believe in this because if we fail to accept this than we too become the problem of our creation! And we have to answer this because the buck stops here, so why can’t our “leaders” accept the blame for our Department’s demise?

Why doesn’t the Chief’s Office take the blame for low morale, low retention, and low recruitment? Why do they get away with being held accountable? They are responsible. They are in charge. The buck should stop with them, but it’s always Patrol that gets beaten up by political games at the mercy of the second floor. There is no accountability or responsibility when it comes to 4 stars on your collar; the little guys, the underdogs, always get kicked when they are down; it’s never the other way around. The truth is that in all secrecy, the top floor doesn’t understand Police work, they don’t understand the dynamics of authentic leadership, they are in it for the title and the rank and the nice perks that go along with it. Take-home vehicles must be excellent and never pay for fuel at a chief’s wage compared to a patrol officer’s wage. The City should allow Officers of the Department to have more of a say in who they pick for a Chief in the proper, attentive manner of real democracy (vote). Why do we never have a say in the operations of this Department?

Why do Sergeants have the most challenging job in the Department for such a low wage? Why does the Lieutenant have a carefree career on a more incentive wage? Why do Lieutenants have the opportunity to change their schedules whenever they feel like it, especially when a public holiday is coming up? They can “edit” their schedules and work all the paid holidays for double time and a half at their own will. Can Officers do this? Can Sergeants? Why is there a golden handshake when you get bars on the collar?

Why do Lieutenants have guaranteed job opportunities such as TXDOT / Stone Garden or any other funded programs where they are granted permanent positions/spots while hard-working, burned Officers are struggling to make ends meet on their wages, yet Lieutenants make endless cash flow without any form of “sacrifice.” I want to ask Sgt Mike Garcia (915) 449-2188  why he gets intimidated by bars and what is the payoff. Sgt Garcia is the one who assigns the duties for filling these positions for TXDOT; somebody has to be accountable for these “golden opportunities.”

This isn’t written as a form of vindictiveness or jealousy but as a genuine concern about how far the handshake goes. This is a form of favoritism, or in another aspect, a real form of corruption! Just be fair and allow officers to have a chance at gaining positions; if you are a lieutenant with a starting salary of $118,000.00 per year in El Paso, why do you need to be earning more money on off duties? Why are Lieutenants allowed to work any extra Duties, period? This is nothing more than greed, which builds shady, under-the-table type scenarios!

It’s the entitlement of the Department, the Haves and the Haves not; the same applies to positions, promotions, and carefree existence if you say the right thing and always say “YES,” you will be groomed and spoilt as if you have been given the key to the City, certain things will be opened up for you, VIP treatment but to have such privileges you must sell your integrity, ethics, and your soul to get to that position.

Look at the people who are Lieutenants, Commanders, and Chiefs; they didn’t get there for hard work or expertise in their fields; they don’t offer anything to the table but “re-inventing” themselves, and come up with other departments, people concepts, and ideas and relabel them as their original thought! This doesn’t seem right; the notion that Officers are responsible for being hostile toward people inquiring about joining the Police Department is not an unjust, fair assumption. Who on earth would want to be a cop when you are treated as a second-class citizen with a high divorce rate, high infidelity rate, high turnover rate, high PTSD rate, and a high level of alcoholism? Officers are to blame for low morale, low retention rate, and low recruitment! This is not an officer’s responsibility; this is a city’s responsibility, PIO’s responsibility, chief responsibility, and background responsibility! But there isn’t enough spark to light up a cigarette between all the super heads put together. This is the problem! Identify it, take responsibility for it, accept it, and move forward, and in the process, start kicking the duds back onto Patrol for the changing of the guard is a GOOD thing!

A 12-hour shift to be implemented behind closed doors of the Chief’s office is the new wave of battling low morale, low retention, and low recruitment; once again, the “Yes Men” are backing it; why, you ask? Because they don’t have to do it, they don’t have to work it; they don’t have to suffer hours away from their families; they don’t have to suffer the fatigue, the emotional and mental strain, not to mention the physical strain. It’s a Do what I say, not what I do formality!

This is your El Paso Police Department at its finest! So when a cop comes to your door, please open your hearts to them, for they are battling an internal demon of uncertainty, anxiety, and hopelessness; this is brought to you by the Chief’s Office of 911 Raynor. This is why this outlet of being able to voice one’s concerns to the Jerusalem Press is a gateway of being able to feel free to voice and to have someone in the community hear and listen to our cries; we need help; we need people to support us; we are hurting.

It’s time we have a voice and are allowed to express it, and our pleas fall on deaf ears; nobody cares, and nobody wants to care; our president “Sgt Patrick Natividad” has proven to be one of the good old boys of the Chief’s ear and shouldn’t be President, we need fresh faces, new ideas, original ideas who are to promote their Officers and appreciate those officers for walking through the alleys, the streets, and answering the calls that can very well end our life, we don’t need a dictatorship, authoritative Department who has completely lost the real focus and the goals of the Officers. The Chief did not even have the common decency of a human soul to wish his Officers a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, or a Happy New Year!

If I had to give the current chief’s office a high school grade for handling its own Department, it would simply be an “F” in bright red bolded ink!