City Manager, Ron Olson, announced the five candidates selected for interviews for the City of Corpus Christi Chief of Police earlier today. The selection process began in December when former Police Chief Troy Riggs was promoted to Assistant City Manager of Safety, Health and Neighborhoods. The national search for the next Chief of Police was conducted by the Police Executive Search Forum. The Chief of Police oversees the Police Department with 451 sworn officers, 260 civilians and a budget of over $70 million. The five candidates include:

Joel F. Fitzgerald, Sr. of Missouri City, Texas – Over 20 years of law enforcement experience. Most recent experience includes Chief of Police for Missouri City and the City of Philadelphia Police Department.

Geraldine J. Garcia of San Antonio, Texas – Over 30 years of law enforcement experience. Most recent experience includes Assistant Chief of Police and Deputy Chief of Police with the City of San Antonio Police Department.

Sean Mannix of Austin, Texas – Over 29 years of law enforcement experience. Most recent experience includes Assistant Chief of Police with the City of Austin.

Floyd D. Simpson of Dallas, Texas – Over 25 years of law enforcement experience. Most recently as the Assistant Chief of Police for the City of Dallas.

Mark Schauer of Corpus Christi, Texas – Over 30 years of law enforcement experience. Most recent experience includes Commander of Support Services and Commander of Uniform Division for the Corpus Christi Police Department.

Corpus Christi Police Department South Side Directed Patrol Officer Javier Cantu and the entire 70^th CCPD Police Academy class will spend the day assisting two elderly females in beautifying and cleaning out their home.  One of the females is bedridden, while the other female takes care of her.

Adult Protective Services had to remove the ladies from the home until their residence is deemed fit to live in again.  While Officers and the Cadets are cleaning up the home, Adult Protective Service have provided these ladies a place to stay until they can return home.

The 70^th Police Academy volunteered for this community police project and overwhelmingly agreed that it was the right thing to do and part of their job as public servants.  The cadets feel helping the citizens of Corpus Christi is one of the reasons they want to be Police Officers.

All Officers and Cadets will meet at the Corpus Christi Police Department Training Center, 4510 Corona, Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 8:00 a.m.  They will go from the Training Center to the home, where the work will begin.

Hoops for Blue Scholars

In an effort to raise money for a scholarship designed to help Corpus Christi Police Officers, the Corpus Christi Police Department and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi have teamed up once again.

On Saturday February 11, 2012, the 2^nd Annual “Hoops for Scholars” basketball game will be played.  The TAMUCC Islander men’s basketball team will be playing Sam Houston State Bearkats in a Conference game at the American Bank Center.  As a way to raise money for the Scholarship, a ‘pledge per basket’ system has been set up. 

If someone pledges $2.00 per basket (two & three pointers only), and the Islanders make 23 baskets, the total donation would be $46.00.  The more the Islanders score, the more money that goes into the scholarship.  The ability to make a one-time donation is also available.  

The Scholarship is beneficial to the men and women who serve the Corpus Christi community, risking their lives to keep others safe.  The children of Corpus Christi Police Officers can also apply for the scholarship.

Please make a pledge and join us at the game.  This will be easy to do, since those who pledge get a free ticket.  The game should be an exciting rematch to the January 21^st game where the Islanders beat the Bearkats, 50-to-49, in Huntsville after a last second jump shot.  The Islander victory came after overcoming a 16-point lead by the Bearkats in the 2^nd half.

Come out and help Corpus Christi Police Officers cheer for the Islanders.

Make a pledge or get more information on the TAMUCC Website: http://hoops.tamucc.edu/

TAMUCC Islanders -vs- Sam Houston State Bearkats

Day:  Saturday February 11, 2012

Time:  1:00 PM

Location:  American Bank Center

On Saturday, February 4, 2012, a total of 96 cars will be auctioned at the Corpus Christi Police Department Vehicle Impound Lot located at 2600 Holly Road during our monthly auction. Approximately 14 of these vehicles are “No Insurance” impounds. On Friday, February 3, 2012, the general public will be allowed to register and view the vehicles to be auctioned from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There is no registration fee.

On the day of the auction, the general public can continue to register and view the vehicles from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.  The auction will commence promptly at 10:00 a.m. The vehicles to be auctioned can be viewed at www.siskauction.com. An auction list may also be downloaded from the same website.

The department’s strong stand and enforcement of this “Zero Tolerance No Insurance Initiative” will continue and all vehicles involved in accidents will be impounded and the driver cited if they are unable to provide financial proof of insurance. Driver’s license and proof of financial responsibility checkpoints will continue to be conducted at the Shift Captains’ authorization.

Officers issued 5,498 citations and impounded 1,212 vehicles for Failure to Maintain Financial Responsibility during 2011.  During January 2012, Officers issued 480 citations for Failure to Maintain Financial Responsibility.

The Corpus Christi Police Department honored several members from its rank and file today with a retirement ceremony.

The citizen of Corpus Christi lost a total of 392 years of community service experience today when 16 employes retired from the department. These individuals include both civilian and sworn personal from several different units within the department.

Civilian                                                       Sworn

Gail Colman – CSR                                     Stephen Mylett – Asst. Chief

Maria Carmona – SSA                              Nancy Lee – Lt.

Inez Comfort – CG                                     Ronald Ordner – Lt.

Shannon Dukes – Metr.                           Tony Acevedo – S/O

Olga Hinojosa – SSA                                 Charles Bartels – S/O

Debby Hughes – CSR                                Michael Degado – S/O

Bill Noonan – CSR                                     Chistopher Hunter – S/O

                                                                         Michael Trimyer – S/O

                                                                         Yolanda Trujillo – S/O

Each of the retires received a plaque honoring their time of service from Chief of Police Badaracco, along with a warm reception from current and retired personal from the department.

On behalf of the Corpus Christi Police Department, we want to congratulate each and every one of you on your retirement. We are grateful for your hard work and dedication, for each one of you have left an everlasting mark that makes this police department what it is today.

The Corpus Christi Police Department would like you to join us for a neighborhood meeting to discuss the recent graffiti increase in your area.

The gathering will include information on the reporting of graffiti, the filing of police vandalism reports via our Telephone Reporting Unit or Online Reporting,  and how to remain anonymous when calling tips on suspects committing crime.

The Graffiti Neighborhood Meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 in the South Middle School Cafeteria, 3001 McArdle Road.  The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m.

Speakers will include members of the Corpus Christi Police Department, the Graffiti Task Force and Removal Team, as well as, our community partners including representatives from the Corpus Christi Independent School District Police Department, the Texas Department of Transportation, along with City Council members John Marez and Priscilla Leal.

Yesterday the Corpus Christi Crime Stoppers Board hosted its annual Judges Appreciation Luncheon and Awards Banquet. The luncheon serves several purposes,

First, it’s serves as a way to say “Thank You” to the judges who support our program.  They do so  by administering a fine to every individual that is placed on probation in their courts. This particular fine is used by the Crime Stoppers program for the solo purpose of paying rewards to the tipsters who call the Crime Stoppers Hotline. So in a sense what happens is that the very individual who has been convicted of a crime in our county is now paying to put another criminal behind bars.

Secondly, we recognized the most productive Campus Crime Stoppers program for the previous school year. Those schools who excelled for the 2010-2011 school year are Moody High School and South Park Middle School.  Both of these campuses have had a long-standing succesful Crime Stoppers program which continue to promote and encourage participation in reporting illegal activity on their campus.

The luncheon is a fundraiser for the program, as mentioned above, the dollars received from the judges is strictly ear-marked for rewards and can not be used for the day-to-day operations of the Crime Stoppers office.

Therefore, the board is tasked with funding the operational cost of maintaining the Crime Stoppers office and this luncheon has proven to be a great resource to do just that. In the past, this function has raised nearly $6,000 to maintain the Crime Stoppers office.

Caring for our Military Heroes

On Saturday morning, January 21, 2012, Interim Chief Richard Badaracco and Senior Officer Denise Pace represented the Corpus Christi Police Department during a panel discussion about our Nations military veterans.  Topics that were discussed included the Peace Tree Project of South Texas, and Veterans Village.

The Peace Tree Project of South Texas donates a live tree to surviving family members of soldiers killed.  The Project motto: “Strengthening the Roots of America; One U.S. Fallen Hero’s Family at a Time.”  The tree is both a gift of thanks and honor, but also a symbol of remembrance.  These trees have been donated to families all over the Coastal Bend to include Corpus Christi, Portland, Robstown, Mathis and Orange Grove.

The topic of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) included news that WWII veterans coming home from a war zone would live on a military base for a period of about one month, during which time they would re-adjust to life outside a combat zone.  Veterans today can be back at their own house within forty-eight hours of being in a combat zone.  A lack of ‘decompression’ can enhance PTSD.

Veterans Village, a project started by Nadia McCaffrey who was at the meeting, is a place for veterans to turn when struggling to re-adjust to life at home.  “It’s not about politics…the right or the left” McCaffrey said, “it’s about the men and women who served.”  McCaffrey’s son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June of 2004.  Information about Veterans Village can be found at: http://www.veteransvillage.org/

The purpose of the Saturday morning’s meeting was to bring current veteran topics and issues to the table.  In addition to the Corpus Christi Police Department, attendees at the meeting included representatives from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the Nueces County District Attorney’s Office, and Del Mar College.  Texas Congressman Todd Hunter and Nueces County Commissioner Joe A. Gonzalez were also in attendance.

The Corpus Christi Police Department was honored to be able to participate in such a noble venue.

Have you ever seen flashing blue lights in your neighborhood and wanted to know what was going on? Do you want to find out how safe your neighborhood really is, or the neighborhood you are moving into? Now you can, through a partnership between the Corpus Christi Police Department and CrimeReports, creators of the National Crime Map, at www.CrimeReports.com.

 “Providing reliable, timely information to our citizens is one of our top priorities,” says Capt. Ed Shannon.  “And partnering with CrimeReports gives us the ability to keep the public informed on a regular basis as to what is going on in the community.”  He added that the public can access the crime map 24 hours a day through the website or through the CrimeReports iPhone app, available for free download in the Apple iTunes store. The service even lets local citizens sign up for free customizable email alerts, so they can stay on top of crime in their neighborhood. “Information is power,” Capt. Shannon added, “and we hope that giving the community this information will help them prevent crime in their neighborhoods.”

 “The Corpus Christi Police Department is a leader in law enforcement innovation,” says Greg Whisenant, founder and CEO of CrimeReports. “They are demonstrating their commitment to the community and to proactive policing.”

 The Corpus Christi Police Department has joined a list of over 700 other law enforcement agencies of all sizes across North America who are sharing their crime information with the public through the map, like Baltimore, Boston, San Jose, San Francisco, Portland, Washington D.C., Los Angeles County, and more.

 You can access your local crime map and sign up for daily, weekly, or monthly email crime alerts at www.CrimeReports.com.