11 December 2024, El Paso, Texas, Steven Zimmerman – “He doesn’t stop,” says an officer who works with Lt. Frank Rodriguez. “He truly believes that he is above department policy. We need better officers.”

Over the last few months, we’ve received complaints about Lt. Frank Rodriguez of the El Paso Police Department. Between his abuse of overtime, his inability to respond to a past shooting with any urgency, and his attitude, other officers believe that he does not uphold the Department’s standards.

“His money, his overtime, his bragging about what he has,” says another officer, “he just brings morale down.”

“We have this ethics training we have done,” says a Northeast Regional Command Center officer. “It asks us, ‘Is this against policy?’ and that doesn’t really matter because if you’re anointed, you’re safe.”

The following are the training documents that that officer in the Northeast provided us.

The El Paso Police Department’s Policy and Procedures Manual (at the end of the article) states that overtime is limited to twenty-five hours per week.

“We have mandatory overtime, which can exceed the cap,” says an officer assigned to the Police Academy. “However, I’ve seen blatant disregard for that limit.”

We’ve written about an officer who fell asleep while on TxDot. While this officer slept, a car crashed into the construction area, claiming a life.

“We have officers who are tired, exhausted,” says the officer at the Police Academy. “This can be attributed to the lack of officers on the street, the overtime performed, and general disgust for the job.”

The officers we spoke to today addressed an overall lack of morale and a desire to police themselves.

“We have to second guess what we are doing,” says a patrol officer from the Westside Regional Command. “We think we are doing the right thing, and then we have to go before IA (Internal Affairs) or someone like you writes about it. And to make it worse, they are cutting the Police Academy to about eight months.”

“What can we do?” asks the officer who works with Lt. Frank Rodriguez. “You complain, but nothing is done, or they issue some training bulletin that they are going to ignore. They want professionals and professionalism, but they cut the training. It’s all a joke now.”

We agree. The Department needs more staff, the environment is hostile, and we all expect far too much from the officers on the street. While we play armchair quarterback, there is something we can do: sign up for the next Police Academy. We all want a better Department that will protect and serve.

“Change is only going to happen from within,” says the officer from the Police Academy. “The Chief and I hate talking badly about the man; he doesn’t know what he is doing. We have others who think a desk pop is a good thing and those who abuse overtime. The only change is going to come from new officers who can push the old guard out.”