31 December 2024, El Paso, Texas, Steven Zimmerman – In El Paso, the lack of officers on the street and emergency services operators who are not adequately trained to take calls or advise those calling for service to meet specific standards before a unit is dispatched are recipes for disaster.
On 23 December 2024, the Habitat for Humanity ReStore box truck in El Paso, Texas, was broken into. When the break-in was discovered on 26 December, shop staff did what anyone would do: they called the police. However, the police were never dispatched.
“If Walmart had called requesting a police presence,” says an Officer assigned to El Paso’s Lower Valley, “we would have been dispatched right then. The rule is, for big businesses, we take that call right away.”
In El Paso, Texas, there is a problem with the El Paso Police Department, which is widely known but never acknowledged within the halls of Police Headquarters or City Hall: the police department is letting the citizens of El Paso down.
“I remember when I called 911 for the police,” says Matt Thomas, someone we spoke with earlier in 2024. “My home was broken into, and I called the police a total of seven times over two days. No one ever bothered to respond.”
There are reasons for the lack of response that make sense, and we could easily understand them if only the City and the Department would publicly acknowledge them and work to fix them: lack of Officers on the streets and poor morale.
On 27 March 2024, Public Information Officer Gomez appeared on KFOX-TV, a local news station for El Paso, Texas, to say that the lack of police officers does affect response times. Still, the Department hasn’t reduced police services yet.
“Well, the number of officers does affect response times, but not just response times,” said Gomez during the interview. “It affects every area of the Department, investigations, operations, everything. Um, we’re at a critical level right now. We haven’t reduced services, but we don’t want to.”
“Gomez may say they haven’t reduced anything,” says an Officer out of the Westside Regional Command, “but the department is top heavy with brass and other units that don’t respond to calls.”
When the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in El Paso, Texas, called the police, the call taker did something no one would expect: told the store manager that a unit would not come out until the store had secured video from the alarm company.
We’ve all seen videos on YouTube and television of officers from other cities making arrests at Walmart, shopping malls, and even homes where the officers used their cellphones to record video directly from security monitors. They did not say they would return when they had CDs, thumb drives, or some other form of video to take with them.
“When law enforcement, or in this case, police operators, refuse to respond for lack of perfect evidence, they are setting a dangerous precedent,” says Ricard Smith, a retired Texas attorney. “The investigation job starts with the initial call; the crime is first discovered. Procrastination, or not responding until certain conditions are met, is a gross miscarriage of Justice and violates the public trust.”
Mr. Smith went on to say that the original police operator should be identified and retrained or terminated in this case.
“What is the El Paso Police Department’s connection to the call center?” asks Richard Smith. “Did someone from the police or the District Attorney’s office counsel the operators to respond in such a fashion? If so, this is criminal.”
There is another side to this coin: with fewer officers on the street, some officers will not act.
“During the Del Valle homecoming, my mother was attacked,” says Astrid. “Right in front of a cop at 9234 Betel, and he did nothing.”
The lack of an officer does cause calls to remain unanswered, and for those that are answered, you may not receive the best service.
“I’ve been an officer for fifteen years now,” says an El Paso Police Officer we spoke with today, “and you have sergeants and lieutenants who write officers up for everything like the length of fingernails, tattoos showing in shift meetings, and it brings everyone down. Morale is garbage.”
In 2022, PIO Gomez also attributed the officer shortage to the negative light shed on police officers in the last several years.
Let’s look at that claim and some of the many officers who have been arrested:
- Officer Steve Romero
- Sergeant John Solis
- Dispatcher Yvette Valliere
- Officer Joseph Andrew Shreve
- Lieutenant John Surface
- Sergeant Adan Chavez
- Sergeant John Chavez
- Officer Guadalupe Sosa
- Officer Joshua Anthony Gallardo
- Officer Isaac Menchaca
- Officer Aaron Poblano
- Officer Enrique David Mendoza
- Officer Ruben Morales
- Officer Jessica Grijalva
“The citizens of El Paso are paying for Cadillac service but they’re not getting it and the reason being is we are stretched very thin,” EPPD Public Information Officer Robert Gomez told CBS4 El Paso on 31 August 2022. “We probably need at least double what we have, at least 2000 officers to give the Cadillac service that the citizens deserve. Recruiting is down, people are not applying as they used to, to become an officer, and we have to continue the effort; it’s only going to get worse if we don’t hire to maintain and also to increase.”
“I have not been with the department in El Paso all that long,” one Officer told us, “but I am leaving to another department in Central Texas. You don’t get any support here from command; they don’t care about you.”
Another officer told us that the El Paso Police Department has too many officers who do not patrol the streets or answer calls.
“You have gangs, most Lt’s, some sergeants, other specialized units that won’t take a call, and that makes us look bad,” said the Officer stationed at the Pebble Hills Regional Command Center. “I don’t care what Gomez says; we make ourselves look bad.”
Gomez, the Chief, or any EPPD Commander may say police shortages are caused by the negative light shed on officers and the Department, but the Department is ready to provide fuel for that fire without a second thought.
“Friday and Saturday, we’ll make sure we have enough officers for the increase in calls,” says a Westside Regional Command Center ranking officer. “The rest of the week will be hit or miss.”
In El Paso, the lack of officers on the street and emergency services operators who are not adequately trained to take calls or advise those calling for service to meet specific standards before a unit is dispatched are recipes for disaster.
“Regardless of the status of video footage, if it was readily available or not, a unit should have been dispatched that day,” says Richard Smith. “The officer who may have responded may have known the doer in this case, which may have prevented other burglaries.”
By the time a Tactical officers (above) from the El Paso Police Department finally responded to the call for service, the call that was made on 26 December 2024, five full days had passed.
The Old West mentality for law enforcement is alive and well in El Paso, Texas, and the people and local small businesses are left to pay the price.