Embattled Del Rio Police Chief Fights Back

DEL RIO -- The current Del Rio Police Chief has broken his silence since our first article in February detailing allegations of the former interim Del Rio Police Chief Fred Knoll who preceded him. Knoll charged that Chief James Von Debrow’s heavy management hand was destroying morale and decimating the force’s ranks.

Debrow was hired in December 2012. Del Rio City Councilman Rowland Garza explained that the Council then was concerned that their city’s police force had become too fraternal in dealing with the public. They wanted to get someone in there who would give the Council a fresh look at the police force and implement reforms as necessary.

In the midst of those reforms, proponents of Chief Debrow have emerged. The City Hall election season is in full swing, and the validity of Debrow’s hiring and tenure has become a hot issue in Del Rio.

Debrow said in a telephone interview that the amount Del Rio was offering him in 2012, $82,000 per year, wasn’t enough to attract his interest. He relented after a second call from someone close to the city manager. “Sir, I’ll try to get you more money. But I want you to know that the police department is broken and I know you can fix it. We need you here,” she said, according to Debrow.

“Her voice was cracking and very emotional and it touched my heart.” Debrow said. “I told her that I will take the first offer and I accepted the job right then and there.”

“The only thing I knew about that police department when I accepted the job was that it was broken. But I had no idea it was in this poor of shape and the corruption ran so deep,” Debrow said.  “The officers, all of them, were undisciplined. They ran that police department like it was their own personal kingdom. And no one was going to get inside.”

Debrow saw a lack of fairness to the citizens of Del Rio in how DRPD unevenly enforced the law. “They worked cases that they wanted to work, and cases of their friends or family members would be dismissed or they wouldn’t work them until the statute of limitations ran out,” Debrow said.

The Del Rio Police evidence room, crammed full of confiscated drugs, valuables, and items needed to solve crimes was already declared a horrible mess prior to Debrow’s arrival.

“In my first meeting with [City Manager Robert] Eads, I was given some files about the evidence room. He gave it to me on a Friday and I read it over the weekend and I was horrified. Stolen money, guns, and jewelry. It was just horrible,” Debrow said.

The evidence room was subsequently subjected to an outside investigation and audit. City Manager Robert Eads said that the investigation revealed. “underlying organizational problems…due to lack of accountability and training.”

What Debrow said he learned the following Monday was also troubling. “I was taken to two separate outside agencies and briefed on ongoing criminal investigations of some of my officers,” he said.

“And from there, it only got even worse.”

“My question is: How do you keep an officer who is doing criminal acts?  The citizens of Del Rio should be mad at the individual officers, not me,” he said.

Regardless of how bad of shape Debrow said that the Del Rio Police Department was, winning public support for his tenure hasn’t been smooth sailing. Knoll released information from his private investigation that he conducted after he resigned from being Debrow’s top lieutenant at DRPD. It was critical of Debrow. Friends and family rallied around officers that the chief had to dismiss, or resigned in lieu of an internal investigation, Debrow said. 

In the upcoming May 10 citywide elections, Knoll is running for a Del Rio City Council seat and the heat on Debrow has intensified. The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT) issued a press release in April decrying what Debrow has done to DRPD’s morale, reducing the force down to 47 officers to patrol a city of 40,000 people. The local paper, The Del Rio News-Herald ran a cartoon, now touted on CLEAT’s website, that resembles the boot of CLEAT on Debrow’s buttocks.

[[{"fid":"5007","view_mode":"wysiwyg","fields":{"format":"wysiwyg","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"The Del Rio News-Herald cartoon seen on CLEAT's website, cleat.org.","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"The Del Rio News-Herald cartoon seen on CLEAT's website, cleat.org."},"type":"media","attributes":{}}]]

Debrow’s supporters said that they understand why the Chief had to purge the ranks to get rid of the bad cops. John Sheedy, the retired assistant fire chief and emergency management coordinator for the City, is running for Council against Knoll. He supports Debrow. “As far as what Debrow has done, I have to support the process,” Sheedy said. Sheedy has 17 years experience working for the City and said he respects the civil service process called Internal Affairs, and its investigations. Sheedy indicated that many of the DRPD resignations may have happened in lieu of an officer enduring a grueling investigation that may have revealed uncomfortable details about that officer’s behavior.

City Manager Robert Eads has always supported Debrow. In a press release from his office Friday, Eads detailed why 32 officers on the force have departed service since March 2012, and a few of the departures were for cause:

• Six had already resigned and one had already been placed on indefinite suspension prior to Debrow’s employment. 
• During Debrow’s tenure, three officers have been placed on indefinite suspension, with some of these officers facing criminal charges,
• Seven officers have retired,
• 13 officers have resigned,
• And one officer passed away due to medical complications. 

Eads adds that many Internal Affairs investigations have been opened, closed and completed during this time as well. DRPD is a unionized force, with the grievance resolution process expected of a civil service work force.

Eads said that one high-ranking officer was placed on administrative leave after interfering with a 911 call to dispatch. The off-duty police lieutenant was found in his home with another woman by his wife (the call was for “unwanted female”). The wife called 911 and a DRPD patrol was responding. The lieutenant called dispatch and cancelled the 911 call and then called the responding police officer on his cell phone. The police report said that the lieutenant ordered the responding officer to pull off the road to talk to him, delaying the response time.

In another episode described by Eads, a DRPD officer was placed on indefinite suspension following an Internal Affairs investigation that found the officer guilty of improperly touching a female victim of abuse.

A third DRPD officer was arrested for theft of money donated to a charity, the annual “Guns and Hoses” event. The event was meant to raise money for both the fire department and police department charities. Sheedy said that the amount missing was in the $1,000s.

“High standards of ethical conduct must be a perpetual aspiration for all police officers.  Our citizens and community deserve well-respected and well-trained police officers protecting their families and businesses.  Police officers are held to a high standard and must be held accountable for their actions, acting in a manner consistent with the high trust our citizens vest in their vocation,” Eads said in a press release.

Regardless, CLEAT is running an aggressive campaign against Debrow, calling for his removal.

“CLEAT will always take the side of the officers no matter what. I have offered to meet with CLEAT any time. They won’t return my calls,” Debrow said. He also said that a CLEAT representative from Austin has been in Del Rio on numerous occasions and never has reached out to meet with him.

Del Rio Mayor Roberto “Bobby” Fernandez said that CLEAT hasn’t complained to him either.

“The approved Collective Bargaining Contract requires monthly meetings between the local CLEAT officials and the City's representatives (not Council). To my knowledge, no complaints have been filed by the local CLEAT representatives during these mandated meetings. In addition, nobody from the local or the State CLEAT office has contacted the City Manager or myself. The only knowledge I have [about CLEAT’s complaints] is what I read in the Del Rio News-Herald,” Fernandez said in an email.

We contacted CLEAT on Friday for comment. The public affairs office said that the primary contact for the Del Rio issue is on vacation getting married and would not return our calls until next week.

In the meantime, the audit of the Del Rio Police Department evidence room is almost complete. “We are 98% complete with the inventory. We’ve had to catalog over 50,000 items,” Debrow said. He also said that the department has implemented new procedures and is enforcing existing ones for the new evidence room to guarantee the integrity of all evidence collected and stored.

In a small town where family ties run deep, Debrow admits that he is fighting an uphill battle. Determined to fulfill his promise to do whatever he can to help fix the police force, Debrow vowed, “I’m not running from it. I’m not sweeping it under the rug.”

From the minority chorus of supporters, Councilman Rowland Garza offered his best defense of Del Rio ‘s embattled police chief:

“I will always defend what is right and just as long as the instrument guiding it is right and just. And that he is honest and transparent when dealing with the public’s trust. No one is perfect, nor should we expect them to be. However, we cannot cower to corruption.”