Another veteran Texas cop is discovered to be bad news — seems like this is getting to be a regular news story, right?

This week, it was the Dallas Police Department who had the shameful task of informing the media and the public at large that a police force veteran (13 years) would face termination after the revelation of his bad acts.

Dallas Police Department Assistant Chief Vince Golbeck issued the formal recommendation to fire Senior Cpl. Avery Redd at a disciplinary hearing held last Thursday.

What Did the Bad Cop Do? He Lied.

At the disciplinary hearing, according to the Dallas Morning News, the assistant chief reported that Officer Redd had falsified two police reports.

The department’s internal affairs investigation apparently plowed through the work done by Officer Redd over the past few months, and discovered that things didn’t jive. Seems Redd:

1.  Claimed a Fantasy Arrest.  Redd filed a police report back in February 2011 that he had arrested a woman for criminal trespass — but it never happened.

2.  Took Toy Gun From Trucker and Filed It in Property Room as a Real Weapon.  In the same month, Officer Redd filed another report claiming to have checked a weapon into the DPD property room after he confiscated it from a big rig.  

It appears that something did make it into the property room — but not at the time that the police report filed by Redd claimed it was there.   Moreover, it wasn’t a real gun – even though Redd listed it as if it were a pistol in the report. 

Turns out that the dangerous weapon that he took from the big rig was a toy gun.  Toy. Gun.  Which he listed with a serial number on the report just like it was a Magnum 357 of Dirty Harry fame.  (Why?  Dunno.)

How did the dominoes start falling for Officer Redd?

Apparently, another cop turned him into the Powers That Be.  Seems one of his brother cops got ticked when Officer Redd asked him to cover for him by signing Redd out 20 minutes early for a moonlighting gig at a truck stop. 

This cop went to his supervisor and spilled the beans on Officer Redd.  The result today is that a cop who has been patroling the Dallas streets since 1998 is losing his job. 

Questions Pop Up for All of Us

Gotta wonder what would have happened if the other cop hadn’t gotten mad, right? 

And, of course, who is checking the veracity of police reports?  The system depends upon the honor and integrity of these reports.  Apparently, that is naive of us. 

Lesson learned:  a police report is only as reliable as the cop who wrote it up.

There’s more and more media coverage about the Texas-Mexico border, and lots of debate over how dangerous it is - or isn’t - to travel through South Texas and down into Mexico.

Just this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on a warning issued by the U.S. Consultate’s Office in Monterrey that U.S. law enforcement officers or employees might be the targets of “Mexican criminal gangs” anywhere in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí.

Convicted Laredo Cop knows all about border drug traffic

However, there’s one thing for sure: Orlando Jesus Hale, 28, knows all about the drug smuggling business down near the border. Not that he’ll be profiting from it anytime soon: the former South Texas police officer was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in a federal prison. Seems Hale was caught and convicted of smuggling cocaine through Laredo.

This was no surprise to Officer Hale. He’d declined plea offers and faced a jury last September – and they had returned a guilty verdict on charges of (1) conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and (2) using a firearm to further drug trafficking.

Back in 2008, Orlando Hale was playing both sides of the law: working as a law enforcement officer, and moonlighting as a navigator of sorts, helping cocaine shipments travel through local Texas traffic on their way from Mexico to their American destinations.

At his trial last fall, Hale’s partner-in-crime and former fellow cop Pedro Martinez III testified against him. (Martinez took a plea bargain, pleading guilty and avoiding a trial.)

These Laredo Cops Apparently Felt Safe Enough As They Negotiated Shipment Protection Fees

On the stand before the federal jury, Martinez told all about how the two police officers sat down with a man who they later learned was an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There, in a Laredo hotel room, they described how they could protect cocaine shipments as they moved through Laredo, Texas. As part of the FBI sting, a deal was made for their Police Protection Service – and for $1000 apiece, the two cops protected a phony drug shipment. When the two cops showed up in San Antonio for their pay day, they were busted.

In Dallas, two police officers have been arrested within the past week for doing bad things.  Neither one was on duty at the time. 

Dallas Police Officer Ralph McAfee was arrested on Sunday evening at his home after he and his girlfriend had a fight that apparently escalated into something that resulted in Officer McAfee being accused of assault/family violence.   McAfee is a 12 year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, and he is currently on administrative leave till these charges are resolved.

The same day that McAfee was arrested, another Dallas Police Officer was also arrested: Dallas cop Brandon Innes was arrested very early last Sunday morning (around 3 am) after he wrecked his car (no other vehicles were involved in the crash) and got busted for public intoxication.  (Seems Innes avoided a DUI charge because no one saw him behind the wheel, so there was no evidence, technically, that he was driving drunk. )  Innes is also currently on administrative leave.

So, within one 24 hour period, two members of Dallas law enforcement were arrested for assault and public intoxication (a narrow escape from a drunk driving charge).  However, that’s nothing when you compare what’s been going on over in El Paso recently.

As reported by Daniel Borunda of the El Paso Sun Times last week, El Paso Police Officer Zake Rivera has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault after a family fight went bad and he and a fellow cop responded to the family disturbance call about the family fight going down.  Following standard operating procedure, the two policemen separated the couple who were fighting in order to question them, and according to the woman Officer Rivera placed her into the patrol car where the sexual assault is said to have occured.  Rivera was first placed on desk duty; he was later arrested by the Special Investigations Group (DNA testing was done), and a termination hearing was set to happen this week (March 7).

But this isn’t the only recent arrest of El Paso law enforcement.  As Mr. Borunda reports, there have been many allegations of bad things happening over there in the El Paso Police Department, including one police officer who was involved with an underage teenage girl (he was fired); another cop who was busted for allegedly stealing gifts while working off duty at a wedding reception; and another El Paso cop who was arrested for molesting a woman while she was unconscious. For details, check out Mr. Borunda’s story.