A newly revealed audio recording suggests that Hidalgo County, TX, Sheriff Guadalupe “Lupe” Treviño makes law enforcement personnel moves based on personal and political vendettas. The tape suggests that the sheriff who is responsible for one of the busiest border counties in the United States rewards political supporters and punishes officers that he believes do not support his political campaigns. On the tape, Sheriff Treviño is heard demoting a seasoned career officer over a petty dispute involving one of his campaign yard signs.
Back in August, we reported on the manipulation of crime statistics in the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department. In that three-part series, we showed hidden-camera video evidence that Sheriff Lupe Treviño, a Democrat who has been sheriff in Hidalgo County since 2004, leads an effort that systematically distorts and downplays the extent and nature of criminal activity in the county, which sits on the border between Texas and Mexico. In that report, one deputy alleges that Sheriff Treviño turns a blind eye to Mexican drug cartel activity in his county. Treviño manipulates the statistics and keeps deputies from proactively fighting crime, the deputy says, so that the county appears to be safer than it really is, and so Treviño can claim to have reduced crime in the county, which sits on the border between Texas and Mexico. Hidden-camera video captured a sheriff’s department crime analyst admitting that Sheriff Treviño personally orders the statistical manipulation. The Obama administration uses statistics from Hidalgo County and other border communities to tell the American people that the U.S.-Mexico border is safer than ever before.
Late last Monday night a new tape surfaced on YouTube. On this tape, which was recorded inside the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Edinburg, Texas, on December 12, 2011, Sheriff Treviño is heard telling Senior Deputy Linda Garcia to pack her things in her office and move them, because she is being transferred from a department staffed by veteran officers like herself to another department, in which junior officers begin their law enforcement careers.
Treviño begins the meeting telling Garcia: “Uh, I’m gonna transfer you out. I want you to clean your stuff out this afternoon. Tomorrow morning, I want you to report to Commander Montemayor and he will tell you where you’re gonna go.” Commander John Montemayor heads the sheriff’s department’s investigations and patrols sections.
Senior Deputy Garcia’s law enforcement career began in 1982, and she had been with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department for about five years when the recorded conversation took place. Trevino is heard on the tape stating that since Garcia has not been on patrol for some years, he is choosing not to put her back on patrol. Instead, he transfers her from Internal Affairs, a department typically staffed by top veteran investigators who have spotless service records, to Intake Misdemeanors, a department typically staffed with junior officers starting out on their careers in criminal investigations.
After explaining his decision not to send Garcia back to patrol, Sheriff Treviño explains his decision to demote her.
“I have lost confidence in you,” Treviño tells the veteran officer. “I know that you are not in favor of me, for whatever reason. I know you changed your mind. And that’s fine, that’s fine,” Treviño tells Garcia. He continued, “One thing I do want you to understand, is that politics has nothing to do with this. But it does.”
“But it does,” Garcia is also heard to say on the tape.
“But it does,” Treviño says again, before Garcia says, “Of course it does.”
“Sure it does,” Treviño says. “Well I’ll tell you it doesn’t, but it does.”
Treviño then spells out the politics behind his decision to demote Garcia.
“When you were asked to go to our kickoff press conference…you said ‘I don’t get involved in politics. I don’t want to get involved in politics.’ That’s fine. I respect that. There’s a lot of people here that told me that, and I respected it.” After some crosstalk, Treviño continues.
I have to believe that somewhere in all this, that it is a crime to demote a person for a campaign sign being removed from a daughter and son-in-law’s home. At the very least I hope he gets sued.
Is anyone surprised this is what happens when you make law enforcement* officers subject to elections?
*Dislike how “peace officers” have now all become “law enforcement officers” and taken Machiavelli’s advice that it’s better to be feared then loved.
You got that wrong, Machiavelli said it was better to be loved than feared. But if you can’t get the one, take the other.
“This gives rise to an argument: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the opposite. The answer is that one would like to be both, but since it is difficult to combine the two it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to make way.”
This is the same part of the state that got LBJ “elected” to the senate, when, at the last minute, a ballot box was “found” with every vote cast for LBJ, all in perfect alphabetical order. The Rio-Grande valley is not part of the US.
What does one expect, the fish rots from the head on down.
Corruption now is rampant…
Any bets on whether Sheriff Trevino is on the take?
Democrats love them some good-old-fashioned, regressive, 3rd-world style politics. They call themselves Progressive, but they are actually Regressives. We should start calling them that.
By contrast, Conservatives love them some Calvin Coolidge:
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2011/07/01/calvin-coolidge-on-progress/
I’ve taken to calling them proglodytes.
This is nothing new. I was in Texas law enforcement for 12 years and it’s common knowledge, especially in an “elected” Sheriff’s Department, that if you don’t support the Sheriff politically, you are gone. There’s been a running joke for a long time that having the rank of Lieutenant or above in a Sheriff’s office was “a four year job when you took it.” Whenever a new Sheriff gets elected, the entire command staff gets wiped out and replaced by the new Sheriff’s buddies. Most of whom don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to administratively leading a law enforcement agency. If you’re a grunt – keep your mouth shut and keep your job.
If you have ever been to Mexico you know that EVERYONE is on the take. Nothing is as it seems there. This Sheriff sounds like he is still in Mexico and his actions are truly Mexican. La Raza’s aim is to take back the territory taken by the US from Mexico and it looks like they are winning. Is there one gringo in the entire department?
There is upwards of a dozen Anglos working at the agency. It took me 13 years to make sergeant. After being passed up twice for promotion I asked one of the captain’s why I could never make sergeant. The captain said it wasn’t that I didn’t know my profession or didn’t work hard, he told me it was because I was white. I endured many years of racist remarks from not only the public, but also from coworkers and supervisors. For the record, I retired prior to this seasoned deputy retired because I was also being transferred from an administrative job back out into the field (Patrol) even though the sheriff had agreed to keep me in the office after having total hip replacement surgery 3 years prior . Do I believe my transfer was politically motivated? To some degree yes as I wasn’t one to do anything political while on duty, nor was I one that could easily be pushed around or controlled.
So did you try to fight the injustice and racism you suffered? If not, why?
Gag. I grew up in this area. This sort of behavior is normal. Disgusting, but normal. All businesses and politicians run on the Mexican patron system. If you want to get anything done, you have to know someone, and then give that person your allegiance.
Well, welcome to the real world. Sheriffs are elected officials and can assign you a midnight walking beat anywhere, whether on the Rio Grande or Santa Catalina, the island of romance, policing the sand crabs. All politics is personal. Surely you didn’t really think a sheriff would keep someone in Internal Affairs he didn’t trust? And if I read you facts correctly, I’m surprised she was already in Internal Affairs before even having five years in the department.
your right, he can assign her to whatever position he’d like, but not because she’s not in his favor…thats just asking for trouble. But all too often thats what sheriff’s do. Fortunately in this case, we hear for ourselves in his own words why he’s doing it. And obviously you didn’t read the facts correctly…she’d been with the dept 5 yrs but in law enforcement longer than that!
What? A corrupt sheriff? Say it ain’t so!
She was in IA because she couldn’t cut it out here with “US” the deputies. She was and still is too stupid to handle a firearm. As for the 30 odd years of policing, i surely doubt it. maybe she was a communications officer. NOT A COP. Pinche nalgas de hule.
Strong comments…. What’s your real name….
Really? I happen to know her, she was probably patrolling the streets while you were still in diapers. She worked many years at mission pd and i wouldve been happy to have her be my backup anytime. maybe you’re hating cauase YOU werent chosen to be in IA?