Child Crimes Detective Spotlighted for Outstanding Service

Bobby Elrod remembers playing cops and robbers as a child. ‘Everyone did,’ he says, but not everyone continues playing into adulthood.

For Elrod, the allure of the catching the bad guys transpired into a career that with words from a friend in Abilene nearly two decades ago. At 34 years old, he was hired by the San Angelo Police Department and started on patrol as all officers do. This month, he has been selected for his outstanding work with the department as the SAPD's Officer of the Month.

“It’s something that I’d always considered and never really pursued until I was a little older,” he said of becoming an officer. “A buddy of mine, who I went to high school with, became an officer in Abilene. That kind of pushed me to pursue it at that point.”

After cruising the streets for 10 straight years, Elrod transferred to the SAPD’s elite Special Operations Section in 2008, eventually going back to patrol three years later. By 2013 it was again time for a change, and Elrod found himself in the department’s Criminal Investigations Division. But his time dedicated murders, thefts and other felonies was limited as a need for assistance handling crimes against children called him to that department as an investigator.

The assignment in the child crimes division was meant to be part time, but with three to four intakes coming in on a daily basis, and a limited staff to handle the cases, that assignment turned into a full-time commitment he still holds.

“It wasn’t a real hard transition; it was just a lot more detailed, a lot more tedious,” Elrod said. “The hardest part of it is not being able to give the attention to the case that you would like to due to the fact that you’ve got them coming in constantly.”

Describing the typical run of a case, Elrod said it isn’t uncommon to be in the middle of an investigation when another comes in that demands attention. The cycle repeats itself, he said, to the point where the two child crimes detectives are managing multiple investigations at various stages on a continual basis.

“It’s a matter of the giving the attention that I think each case deserves,” he said. “We do a good job; we do the best that we can, but I think we could put more detail in those cases if we had more time to spend on them.”

Elrod noted that there has been an increase in cases over the last year; those cases span allegations of the physical abuse and sexual abuse of children.

“It’s busy all the time,” he said.

Aside from his job in CID, Elrod also works security at the Central High School campus on his days off. That role is mutually beneficial, he explained, as he is able to detect the signs of abuse in teens he sees at the school and is aware of those who may have already filed a case that has been handed to the police department.

“You see these kids that are standoff-ish and don’t have a lot to do with other kiddos—that don’t really associated much,” he said. “While working child crimes, I have discovered that some of those kids have been victims of violent crimes or sex abuse crimes that causes them to be withdrawn. I can kind of see a pattern.”

Elrod has worked in schools for years, he said, and even as a patrol officer, his experiences on campus enabled him to better understand what he was confronting on the streets.

“Just as a police officer on the street—back in the days that I worked the streets—it helped a lot because you were dealing with the same kids on the campus that you were dealing with on the streets,” Elrod said. “You get to know them; you recognize them; you know their names; you know their habits; you know where they hang around; you know who they hang around with.”

Elrod has been with the SAPD for a little over 17 years, and plans to stick around for at least another eight. Child crimes can be overwhelming, he said, but he intends to continue working those cases as long as he can.

“I don’t want to the point where I’m burnt out and can’t do these kids justice,” he said. “I’m their voice, for most of these kiddos. And I want to make a difference for them. It does [wear on me more than other investigations] due to the fact that I have a 10-month-old grandson. Because I put myself in that situation where, you know, ‘if this was my grandson or one of my children, how would it affect me, how would it affect my family, what would I want done?’”

In order to work through the stress, Elrod spends time with his grandson, plays softball and “kills some paper” at the shooting range, he said. He loves his job and wouldn’t trade it, but after 17 years on the force, it’s the cumulative reminders that he’s making a difference that keep him going.

“As a police officer, you go to work some days feeling like you’re not doing any good in the world, you’re not doing any good in the community,” he said. “It seems like everything you do you get scrutinized or cussed at or someone talks bad about you for it. Whenever you have that citizen that comes up and thanks you for the job that you do and appreciates the things that you do—maybe one time or another you helped them out in a certain way that helped change their life or make things better for them—then it’s worth it.”