This morning, our inboxes were filled with emails from Officers with the El Paso Police Department. Concerns about a rogue Lieutenant and the use of patrol cars for TxDot and DHS jobs are the concerns of the day.

4 May 2024, El Paso, Texas, Steven Zimmerman—The El Paso Police Department has invested too much power and confidence in an officer who is too scared to do any actual police work. An officer who prides himself on how much overtime he can steal from his fellow officers to the pride he seems to puff up with when he criticizes those who wear the same uniform.

“Frank is looking for you and whoever is giving you his words, word for word,” says an officer in one of the many emails received over the last twenty-four hours.

Another officer, clearly exasperated, commented, “The man is a ticking time bomb, and we are powerless to act due to the perception that he is untouchable by the higher-ups.” 

I have zero confidence in the El Paso Police Department’s Command Staff, from the Chief of Police (who hasn’t patrolled the streets of El Paso in the longest time) to the Commander over Rodreguez. 

An officer typically works forty hours and can work up to twenty-five hours of overtime. Think of the officers you see at Walmart or on TxDot job sites when in uniform and in a marked unit. 

The Fair Labor Standards Act is a federal law that regulates pay issues for full-time and part-time workers in the private and government sectors.

From the Texas Police Chief’s Association Handbook, we find the following:

For non-exempt, all hours in excess of 40 during each work week, will receive overtime of 1.5 of regular rate. Be mindful of employee’s activities. Do not allow employees to work extra hours “off the clock.” This can result in a costly lawsuit.

Rodreguez can work that overtime, but the El Paso Police Department’s policy and procedure limit overtime to twenty-five hours a week. Why is Rodreguez exempt from that standard? If you will exempt one officer, you need to exempt them all, period. 

“I could use some of that overtime,” says an email from yet another officer. “But the “Godfather of IRA’s” gets them all the time. Why?

Good question; why?

“I used to work with Rodreguez, and he would burn out early so he could get to the Lower Valley,” another officer says in another email we received this morning. “He just heads off before his shift here is up. I got to live with knowing my LT cares more about chasing that money than having our backs.”

Let’s talk about marked police units, TxDot, and other places where units are placed. 

“We don’t have enough units as is,” says another officer, “becuase the City of El Paso places us low on the list of priorties.”

The El Paso Police Department is also to blame for using marked units irresponsibly.

Have you ever driven along a Border Highway and seen marked units sitting there, watching the border wall? These units are there as a deterrent, not to traffic, but to those who may cross the border and run across the highway. 

On TxDot construction jobs, you will see a black and white blocking an onramp, or the road, to keep other vehicles from accessing the road, thus allowing construction workers to get their jobs done. 

These things need to be done, and I understand that, but when there is a shortage of marked units in service and we are sending working units to static locations, that’s a problem.

“We have cars that can be used for these things, but they sit around for nothing,” says one officer. 

The El Paso Police Department has several old white cars; why are these not used for Border Highway and TxDot jobs? These marked units run almost nonstop; why not reduce the wear and tear and utilize the older cars for static locations?

We may never know. 

I want to end with a quote from another officer who contacted us overnight. His email sums up the overall feeling within the Department.

“I’m losing confidence in the chain of command,” says the officer. “I’m losing confidence as they [Command Staff] ignore us, punish us, and just keep giving everything to the ones who are only here to do for themselves. Maybe CBP is hiring.”

One day, Command and the City of El Paso may finally do something. Well, maybe now, after all, it is El Paso.