Recent editorials from Texas newspapers

Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Texas newspapers:

The Monitor. Aug. 25, 2019.

You might want to keep this website handy: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/open-government/governmental-bodies/pia-and-oma-training-resources .

This site managed by the Texas Attorney General’s Office offers links to information about state open government laws, and to the laws themselves.

Specifically, trustees and administrators with the San Benito School District are invited to visit the site, if they haven’t already. And they should have.

These officials and others who regularly are involved in public meetings or handle public information should have earned state certification that they know and understand those laws. Acquiring that certification within six months of taking their positions is one of those laws.

At least one San Benito official apparently doesn’t have such knowledge.

Earlier this month a district official issued an email addressing information in a newspaper article about the firing of after-school director Jack Garcia after he reportedly improperly used a district credit card to buy airline tickets for district chess players to attend the state championship tournament. School board member Mary Lou Garza, Garcia’s aunt, was quoted in the article, and apparently prompted the email that was sent to district officials and to some local news media.

The email suggested information used in the article was “leaked,” and stated that anyone who divulged information that had been acquired in a closed-door meeting could face criminal charges.

“At this time, the San Benito CISD board of trustees is prepared to use any of the legal tools available to enforce these confidentiality policies and ensure that information that is discussed in accordance to the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act remains confidential,” the email states.

Those statements aren’t true.

Texas open government laws, which are among the best in the country, follow the basic premise that the public has a right to know what government officials are doing and how public funds are being used. Exclusions to public disclosure are relatively few and specific; if the law doesn’t specifically exempt information from public disclosure, it is presumed to be public.

It’s worth noting that there is no such thing as a “closed meetings act.”

What’s more, the disclosure of exempted information, whether intentional or accidental, generally isn’t a crime. It might violate a government entity’s policies or, in the case of land dealings or trade secrets, the terms of a contract, but that would be a civil matter.

Observers have suggested that the missive simply was an effort to intimidate district officials into silence. But since those to whom it was directed should have taken the open meetings certification course and should know the laws, the threat should have had little effect.

However, the obvious attempt to elude public disclosure about district actions should concern those whose children attend San Benito schools, whose taxes support the district and whose votes elect the governing board. Fortunately, open government laws and the certification courses about them are also public, and interested parties can arm themselves with the facts in order to recognize any misstatements about what the public can and cannot know.

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Houston Chronicle. Aug. 26, 2019.

The shadow hanging over the Houston Police Department since Jan. 28, when five officers busted into the home of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas and killed them in a shootout, lifted ever so slightly Friday.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced her office had charged former police officer Gerald Goines with two counts of felony murder for his role in the botched raid.

The fates of Goines and his former partner Steven Bryant - charged with tampering with a governmental record, a state jail felony - now rest with a grand jury tasked with deciding whether to indict. Both officers retired earlier this year as the investigation quickened.

Goines’ murder charge wasn’t surprising. Police Chief Art Acevedo had hinted months ago that the case was headed in that direction. But it does represent a stark break from the days in Harris County when officers were routinely shielded from accountability.

Last year was the first time in 15 years that Harris County prosecutors secured an indictment against a peace officer for an on-duty fatal shooting, although that case ended in acquittal this month.

A conviction against Goines is also far from certain. Nevertheless, in charging Goines with murder, Ogg sent another powerful message that transgressions by officers will carry consequences. She told the editorial board Friday that the grand jury will also consider stronger charges, such as capital murder, if jurors determine the evidence supports them.

The harm the Harding Street raid did to this community goes beyond even the tragic death toll and severe officer injury. Tuttle and Nicholas, who were not the heroin dealers police initially claimed, were shot to death in their own home. Police say Tuttle fired at the five officers who crashed in on a no-knock warrant, but details of what happened remain shielded from the public.

Four officers, including Goines, were shot, and another was injured. One officer remains paralyzed from the waist down.

The other casualty is the public’s trust in the integrity of officers sworn to keep the city safe. That won’t be easily healed.

Friday’s announcement helps. Knowing officers are not above the law is a necessary condition for community trust. And trust is a necessary condition for safety - the officers’ safety and that of the communities they strive every day to protect.

Still, there’s a reason murder charges against police are rare. Police have dangerous jobs in which decisions hinge on intuition, limited information and split-second decisions. Sometimes tragedies really are mistakes. For that reason, and less-noble political pressures, prosecutors often fear bringing charges themselves and instead let grand juries decide. Grand juries often hesitate on charges as well.

Sometimes a murder charge is precisely what justice requires, even if it is later set aside by a grand jury. Former officer Roy Oliver of the Balch Springs department was charged with murder and later indicted in 2018 for firing his rifle into a fleeing car full of teenagers who refused his order to stop, killing 15-year-old Jordan Edward. He was convicted last year and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Days later, Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger shot and killed 26-year-old Botham Jean in his own apartment, saying she entered mistakenly, believing it was her own, and thought he was an intruder. She became the first DPD officer indicted for murder since 1973 and awaits trial next month.

What Goines is accused of doing seems even worse than those cases. The other officers seem to have responded to unexpected circumstances. The HPD raid was planned. Only after it ended in disaster did investigators apparently realize how Goines’ alleged lies set things in motion.

“I am just angry beyond belief,” Acevedo told the editorial board Saturday. “Even our biggest critics know that by far most of our officers are honest and dedicated public servants. But when something like this happens, it’s just devastating.”

Acevedo rightly notes that healing efforts began when his own investigators began looking for answers and unearthed the evidence that supports Friday’s charges.

But much more is required. The public still knows too little about what happened at Harding Street and what happened within HPD in the years before that allowed Goines to operate as he did. While police have largely cooperated with Ogg’s probe, prosecutors did threaten HPD with a subpoena in June to get names of confidential informants. Acevedo has pledged a full, public accounting once criminal cases have concluded. It’s a promise he must keep.

Nothing will restore Tuttle and Nicholas to life, nor will the wounded officers ever be the same. But understanding what happened in this deadly raid - and how it was allowed to happen - can help Houston heal. Friday’s charges are a hopeful sign that, this time, police accountability may be possible.

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The Dallas Morning News. Aug. 27, 2019.

The city of Dallas has waited months for an outside consultant to come up with an answer to this question.

How many police officers does Dallas need?

Well, the study is in, and we’re still waiting. And the wait is frustrating.

The KPMG study, briefed to the City Council Monday, points out personnel shortages in patrol but doesn’t propose the number of officers the department needs. Part of the reason, the study concludes, is that data quality was a consistent problem. Another reason is that many police procedures and assumptions are outdated.

As a result, this report provides sometimes confusing guidance on staffing. One analysis suggests increasing the “working” patrol staff of 1,406 in the seven patrol divisions by a total of 225 officers. Another scenario notes that the city could add 20 patrol officers to increase those ranks to 1,426 and make up the difference with 796 overtime hours required weekly. Another scenario suggests the city could add 703 patrol officers to increase the total number to 2,109.

Nonetheless, the bottom line to this report is particularly instructive. It strongly states that Dallas police needed to do a better job of prioritizing resources and that the organization lacks the tools to quantify the level of inefficiency. At the same time, the report noted that adding officers based solely on a percentage of Dallas’ population is shortsighted and counterproductive to the goal of reducing crime.

While we don’t find the lack of staffing guidance comforting, the most important takeaway in this report is the warning that Dallas shouldn’t just hire more officers into an inefficient structure.

The report bluntly concludes the department “lacks a clear strategy and is more reactive to the issues of the day.” At the patrol officer level, “staff appear unclear of the overall strategic direction for the department as they receive conflicting direction from the department as to what the priority is, either response times or crime fighting.” And, according to the report, the investigations bureau, suffers from a similar “lack of a clear crime strategy.”

A city can’t arrest its way out of crime, nor can it effectively fight crime if resources aren’t properly deployed. Increasing staffing is an important step but will not have the desired results if the underlying core isn’t overhauled.

Ending inefficient practices should be part of a five-year strategic plan and focus on realigning patrol, investigations and other operations toward clearly articulated strategies.

The next step is for City Manager T.C. Broadnax, police Chief U. Renee Hall and City Council members to acknowledge that reducing crime requires a comprehensive approach. The city’s crime-fighting approach amounts to playing whack-a-mole, which assures that once a problem is “handled,” the same problem will pop up somewhere else.

This study has been something the department and city management have constantly pointed to as a starting point for reform and rebuilding.

Well, the study is in. Get started.