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This Texas town has about 250 people. It has 50 sworn police officers.

KHOU 11 Investigates discovered more than half of the cops in the Coffee City Police Department had been suspended, demoted or fired from their previous jobs.

Quick excerpt,

Coffee City’s budget shows the town collected more than $1 million in court fines last year. That came from more than 5,100 citations officers wrote, the most in the state for a town its size according to the Texas Office of Court Administration.

But there is more to this story than a small town writing a bunch of speeding tickets. KHOU 11 Investigates discovered Coffee City is a magnet for troubled cops. More than half of the department’s 50 officers had been suspended, demoted, terminated or dishonorably discharged from their previous law enforcement jobs, according to personnel files obtained through open records requests to other law enforcement agencies.

Those prior disciplinary actions range from excessive force, public drunkenness, untruthfulness and association with known criminals. They include:

  • An officer terminated for posting a Facebook message to a citizen: “You should kill yourself, do the world a favor.”
  • An officer suspended for smashing a window and entering his girlfriend’s home without consent.
  • A deputy constable suspended after a burglary victim’s laptop computer was found in his home.
  • A deputy constable terminated for tackling a non-resisting citizen to the ground during a traffic stop.
  • A deputy sheriff terminated for slapping a handcuffed inmate without provocation.
  • Two officers terminated for lying on their job applications.
idkwhatimdoing ,

How does a town of 250 have the funds to pay 50 police salaries?

Pons_Aelius ,

How does a town of 250 have the funds to pay 50 police salaries?

Texas Highway 155 crosses Ledbetter Bay as it passes through Coffee City

Coffee City’s budget shows the town collected more than $1 million in court fines last year. That came from more than 5,100 citations officers wrote

MTLion3 ,

So it’s literally funded by leeching. Not like most police sects aren’t, but this seems especially egregious

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

The leech to town ratio is very high.

SCB ,

The town’s citizens do not want to pay taxes, so they are effectively outsourcing their costs to motorists passing by.

GreenMario ,

Sounds like a wildfire should visit that town, nothing of value would be lost.

idkwhatimdoing ,

That’s still nowhere near enough for 50 cops with public level benefits. Even if every dollar of that goes towards the cops, at $20k/year each, it would hardly cover federal taxes on their income, let alone the income itself

dogslayeggs ,

Because only 12 of the 50 are full time. The rest are reserves that are used as surge for events and stuff in other cities.

DigitalTraveler42 ,

The town is probably a ticket trap or they make way too much money off of civil asset forfeiture, it all sounds shady AF.

idkwhatimdoing ,

Between insurance, pensions, salary, reimbursements, and fringe benefits, you’re looking at a minimum cost of $70k per full-time officer per year. They’d have to issue $3,500,000 in tickets to cover that alone, and even then, that leaves nothing for vehicle replacement/maintenance (which is huge on a fleet of cop cars), non-officer employee salaries (clerks etc.), rent/taxes/maintenance on the station, equipment and weapons, training programs, and so much more. No way tickets and forfeitures alone take in that much in a town of 250

DigitalTraveler42 ,

Cartel town maybe? There’s probably some pretty surprising levels of corruption going on there.

Ertebolle ,

They're not full-time:

The opportunity to wear a badge allows officers to make extra money. In the state of Texas, a commissioned reserve officer may work off-duty performing traffic control duties, commonly known as “road jobs.” Of the 50 sworn officers at the Coffee City Police Department, 38 are reserves according to state records.

idkwhatimdoing ,

Ahhh that makes more sense, but still crazy. Definitely staying out of Coffee on any road trips I take…

Son_of_dad ,

Corruption

Pons_Aelius ,

As an outsider, local city based police forces sound like some medieval throwback to me.

Fredselfish ,
@Fredselfish@lemmy.world avatar

That must be a scary town to be stuck living in. Think time FBI step in and disband that police department.

BrandonMatrick ,

I lived across the inlet on the same lake, about 3 miles from the major bridge that they use to get most their speeding tickets - Between Frankston/Tyler, there’s a long 4-lane bridge where they park on either end. There, the speed suddenly drops, directly on the outside of the city limits. There’s always at least 2 waiting to get all the speeders coming off the bridge, and there’s nothing at the end of that bridge but a Fat Dog Liquor and a closed/burnt down café.

HoustonHenry ,

Can confirm, Lindale over here. It brings to mind a little village next to Alvin TX (where the FBI picked up that lady for making threatening calls)- probably the same population…only 2 cops…it’s a husband and wife combo…and he’s also the judge! Ya learn quick --> not 1 mile above the posted speed limit, and sometimes one under just to play it safe

roguetrick ,

It's the classic rent seeking example. Like throwing a chain across a river to charge a fee for crossing it.

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