The Rodriguez File: Excessive Police Overtime Places El Paso Citizens at Greater Risk
[Article has been corrected in order to correct the spelling of Rodriguez]
The El Paso Police Department allows officers to work overtime and on off-duty assignments, such as security details or traffic control, where they wear their uniforms. These hours are limited, though some officers abuse the system.
According to the Procedures policy, page 465 under 900.4 Restrictions. Subsection D) Outside employment is limited to 25 hours per week.
Twenty-five hours a week. Under police policy, no more. However, if you are Lt. Frank Rodriguez these policies do not apply to you.
When Rodriguez decides he wants over time, the procedure is as follows:
Sgt. Mike Garcia sends out a bid showing open overtime slots for TexDot. There can be two or three openings weekly.
When Sgt. Garcia sends these out, the overtime usually goes to the first ten responding officers. We have been told by several officers who have attempted to get this overtime that their slots are filled within seconds of receiving the bid.
“It’s as if Frank Rodriguez has a permanent spot on this every week,” says one officer.
These overtime slots require the officers to be there at 8:30 PM. The problem is that Frank Rodriguez completes his tour of duty at 9 PM. So how is he on a TexDot site while still on the clock with EPPD performing his regular duties?
TexDot is officers in marked cars and uniforms sitting at road construction sites. Rodriguez is almost always given the North Loop and the Americas. They always meet at the Circle K in the same area.
From the above screenshot, Rodriguez works seventy-two (72) hours in a forty (40) workweek—thirty-two hours for TexDot.
In June of 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Inspector General found that former El Paso Police Department police officers Paul Bowden, Oscar Candelaria, and David Jimenez were indicted by an El Paso County grand jury in El Paso, Texas.
The former police officers were indicted on multiple counts of tampering with government records and stood accused of submitting overtime reimbursement requests containing false information as to the times worked and the number of traffic citations issued.
The requests were submitted from 2009 through 2010 while working overtime under the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, which is funded through a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) grant.
Several officers were terminated from the Department for the same conduct that Lt. Frank Rodriguez seemingly with the help of Sgt. Mike Gracia is doing it today. The only difference between Rodriguez and the officers in the investigation is the citations issued. Rodriguez is not issuing any citations during his overtime.
What do the financials look like for Rodriguez?
On regular days, it’s time and a half: 68.04 per hour.
It’s double time and a half on public holidays: $113.40 per hour.
One of the system’s glaring flaws is that lieutenants are allowed to change and modify their work schedules without prior approval. So if Rodriguez is off on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and there is a public holiday on a Monday, he will change his schedule to be on duty that day and get paid double time and a half for working TexDot.
In the real world, what Rodriguez says is wage theft.
“Rodriguez only cares about TexDot and not so much about the people he is supposed to serve,” says an officer we spoke to. “He is always bragging about how much money he makes on TexDot.”
Another officer says, “We have seen Rodriguez, on duty, sleeping in his office.”
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.”
There is zero accountability regarding Lieutenants and overtime. The Department says it prides itself on transparency, but that does not seem to be the case.
The Department says, at the top of its Mission Statement, which we will embed at the bottom of this piece:
Effective 04/06/2021: It is the mission of the El Paso Police Department to preserve life, to provide services with integrity and dedication, to enforce the law, and to work in partnership with the community to enhance the quality of life in the City of El Paso.
For a department that wants to preserve life, they have no problem with an officer working 72.45 hours a week when a week only has 168 hours. How do they plan to serve with integrity and dedication when Rodriguez is frequently asleep in his office, while on duty, or double dipping when he arrives early for overtime?
Another question: Why are patrol units used for TexDot overtime? That keeps officers off the streets and behind a desk, thereby not living up to their own Mission Statement.
Another issue is that during regular duty and overtime, officers must keep their cars running for the overhead lights to work. But, they also seem to leave them running when parked outside a Walmart for a shoplifter, running into restaurants, or whenever they feel like it.
We would be cited under Texas Law if you or I left our cars running.
We’ll never get answers because the PIO and the El Paso Police
The Department refuses to speak to me, a reporter who is a Society of Professional Journalists member. Why? Because of this, they only want transparency when they control the narrative.
As a side note, there was a shootout at 8500 Dyer in October of 2022 that Redrequez was requested at, but he couldn’t bother to take himself away from his cushy COVID overtime with Sgt. Adan Chavez (Chavez having once been charged with Offical Opression, and evently overlooked).
Section 545.404 – Unattended Motor Vehicle
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), an operator may not leave a vehicle unattended without:(1) stopping the engine;
(2) locking the ignition;
(3) removing the key from the ignition;
(4) setting the parking brake effectively; and
(5) if standing on a grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway.
(b) The requirements of Subsections (a)(1), (2), and (3) do not apply to an operator who starts the engine of a vehicle by using a remote starter or other similar device that:
(1) remotely starts the vehicle’s engine without placing the key in the ignition; and
(2) requires the key to be placed in the ignition or physically present in the vehicle before the vehicle can be operated.
Tex. Transp. Code § 545.404
Amended by: Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1066 (H.B. 2194), Sec. 1, eff. June 19, 2015
Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.
