Police duties in Trinidad are being transferred to the Henderson county sheriff’s office until a permanent solution is found. Photograph: Trinidad Police Department via FacebookView image in fullscreenPolice duties in Trinidad are being transferred to the Henderson county sheriff’s office until a permanent solution is found. Photograph: Trinidad Police Department via FacebookTexas police department ordered closed for failing to provide any benefit to communityDisbanding of department in Trinidad comes after arrest of a resident for posting about issues with local water supply
A police department in Texas that arrested a local resident for complaining on social media about their city’s contaminated water supply has been ordered closed after failing to prove it provided any benefit to the community.
State officials stepped in to investigate after Jennifer Combs spent a night in jail in May after a post appeared on her Facebook page suggesting people were hospitalized by bacteria in the water pipes of Trinidad, a municipality in Henderson county about 75 miles south-east of Dallas.
The Trinidad police department’s then chief, Charles Gregory, said at the time that a since-dropped felony charge of making a false report or alarm for Combs was justified because the hospital claims were “simply false and have only caused unnecessary fear and confusion in our community”, Texas news station KDFW reported.
The next day, Trinidad police arrested a supporter of Combs for misdemeanor disorderly conduct after he displayed a “fuck bad cops” placard outside city hall. That charge was also later dropped.
The arrests prompted an investigation of Trinidad police by the Texas commission on law enforcement (TCLE). TCLE wrote to Trinidad’s mayor, Dennis Haws, on 9 September informing him that the agency would be disbanded.
The letter, also reported by KDFW, said the department “failed to meet minimum standards” and “was unable to provide evidence that the agency provides public benefit to the community”.
A separate investigation by the Texas commission on environmental quality found issues with Trinidad’s water supply that city officials have promised to fix.
According to the news channel, the police department lacked resources for officers, including not having bulletproof vests or an evidence room.
Other highlighted failings were problems with use-of-force policies, active shooter situations, vehicle pursuits and the professional conduct of officers.
Haws told the outlet that the state’s order to revoke the city agency’s license to operate law enforcement was “not a shock”.
He said: “There’s been a lot of neglect through the years. We are moving in a positive direction. We’ve got to get past all of this.”
The department employed five full-time officers and several part-timers. Police duties in Trinidad are being transferred to the Henderson county sheriff’s office until a permanent solution is found.
Gregory resigned in June after a grand jury declined to indict Combs. The citizen journalist has since filed a wrongful arrest lawsuit against Trinidad, claiming her detention was politically motivated retaliation for speaking out on the water issues.
Henderson county judge Scott McKee, meanwhile, has said he was misled by the police department, which he said omitted key information when it asked him to approve an arrest warrant for Combs.
After Trinidad police were ordered to disband, Combs posted a statement on social media saying: “For months, citizens who questioned this [agency] were dismissed, attacked and in my case arrested. Now the state agency responsible for regulating Texas law enforcement has confirmed that this department could not demonstrate compliance with even the minimum standards.
“We were never the problem. We were exposing it.”
The Guardian has contacted the city and police department for further comment.
