Community Outreach, Traffic Safety Division

Move Over Public Service Announcement (click link for video)

When you see emergency workers on the side of the road, move over. If you can’t move over, slow down.

Deaths and injuries prompted Texas to enact the move over law in 2003.

When you see lights, when you see vests, slow down and move over.

Texas Transportation Code 545.157 defines the requirements of the Texas Move Over Act. It requires that drivers vacate the lane adjacent to a stopped, authorized emergency vehicle that has its emergency lights on, or slow down to 20 miles per hour below the posted speed limit when the posted speed limit is at or above 25 miles per hour (or slow to 5 mph when
the posted speed is less than 25 mph).

Community Outreach, Traffic Safety Division

What to expect in traffic enforcement (click link)

What the public should do if police initiate a traffic stop:

1. When You See the Police Car

Pull over to the right safely and quickly if a police car is behind you with its emergency lights flashing. Use your turn signal to indicate any lane changes from left to right, and slow down fairly quickly, but not so quickly that the officer will have to brake to avoid hitting you. Pull over as far to the right as possible so that, when the officer comes up to your widow, he or she will worry less about passing traffic.

The best practice is to pull into a parking lot where there is no passing traffic. Once stopped, the best practice is to put the vehicle in park and turn on the interior light if it is dark. It is best to place both hands on the steering wheel so that the officer can see them. It is best to search for documents like proof of insurance and driver’s license after requested by the officer. Stay in the vehicle unless instructed to exit by the police officer.

What does the officer do while I wait?

The officer activates the emergency lights and notifies the dispatch personnel of the traffic stop. The officer provides the location of the stop, the license plate characters of the vehicle, and a description of the vehicle stopped. The officer requests the registration information from the car which is information if the vehicle has been reported stolen, the expiration date of the registration, the registered owner’s information, and the vehicle description.

The officer will approach your vehicle while looking for signs of anything that might indicate criminal activity or a threat to the officer or citizen safety. Criminals are located and arrested during simple traffic stops every day.

The officer will discuss the violation with you and request your driver’s license and proof of insurance. The officer will return to the patrol car to check the status of the license and to check for any warrants for arrest. The officer must document information as to the ethnicity and gender of the operator of the vehicle stopped, the reason for the stop, if an arrest was affected during the stop, if a search was conducted, and if a citation was issued. The officer must then complete any citation or warning before returning to your car. Please be patient, this may take a few minutes.

The officer will explain the citation and return your documents to you. The officer may ask you to sign a citation. Your signature only indicates that you received the citation, not that you agree with it. When the officer is finished with the traffic stop, he or she will tell you that you may go. You should carefully pull back out into traffic.

What if I have a gun in my car?

It is much safer for you and the officer if you tell the officer about the weapon immediately, then follow the officer’s directions. Don’t reach toward it.

What if I didn’t do it?

The time to argue about your guilt or innocence is in court. Instructions on how to plead guilty or not guilty are printed on the citation.

Delta District, Patrol Division

More information about patrol shifts

The Corpus Christi Police Department has 26 patrol shifts which work in an overlapping method so that each beat has two beat officers assigned to share work load for much of the time. The over lapping allows for officers to end their shift having already been replaced by an officer that has started their shift. This method provides for a seem less transition in view of the public so that police services are interrupted as little as possible.

The Corpus Christi Police Department has the city is divided into four districts (A, B, C, & D). Each district is the area of responsibility for one Police Captain. The Field Captain for the Delta District is Captain Bernardo Torres. The Captain supervises 6 or 7 subordinate Lieutenants assigned to the district that act as a shift supervisor over 8 to 12 patrol officers. The patrol officers are assigned to a beat of the district in which there are typically 8 beats per district. Some patrol officers ride together in one patrol car as a two-man unit.

In this case, Officer Paddock is a veteran officer that is responsible for the “on the job” training for Officer Martinez. Officer Martinez is graded each night based on his performance. The highest priority of the training is the ability for Officer Martinez to perform his duties safely.

Officer Martinez was hired by Corpus Christi in 2011 and completed 27 weeks of 40 hour per week classroom instruction. Officer Martinez graduated the 70th Class of the Corpus Christi Police Academy and has been assigned to the streets for the “hands on training.” Officer Martinez has a curriculum to follow for the training provided by Officer Paddock. Officer Martinez has books to study and is also graded on written tests provided by the Police Training Staff.

Randomly, Officers on the Field Training Program like Officer Martinez are unexpectedly called to a designated location to submit to a written exam. The grades from the written exam are compiled with the daily grades based on conduct and performance. Historically, several officers from each academy class do not complete the Field Training Program and are dismissed from the Corpus Christi Police Department.

Community Outreach, Delta District, Patrol Division

The Patrol Officers Day Starts With Roll Call

The Shift gathers for roll call

What is roll call?

The Corpus Christi Police Officers begin their work day in a classroom setting. The shift supervisor, a Lieutenant by grade, takes attendance and conducts uniform and equipment inspections. The Lieutenant then provides the group of 8-12 patrol officers with a briefing.

What is briefing?

There are several types of briefings which are: Information; Decision; Mission; and Staff. The briefing provided to the patrol officers at roll call is typically an information brief. Information briefs present primarily facts to the audience and does not seek decisions, it does not include recommendations, and it does not provide conclusions. The purpose of the briefing is to transfer high priority information to an audience that requires immediate attention. The briefing may explain complicated information to provide clarity and to remove confusion.

The information provided to the patrol officers is recent and significant. It may be information about weather conditions, recent crime trends, neighborhood problems that have surfaced, traffic obstructions like street closures, approaching crowded events, safety concerns, or a variety of other information.

Training opportunities also rise in the time for briefing. Lieutenants use the computer and technology to show videos from police events around the world which provide a venue of consideration for how the individual officers may respond to situations recorded on video. Many shifts listened to the police radio broadcasts of the Colorado theater massacre recently to have conversation about the most effective method for transmitting information over the radio in an active shooter situation.

The roll call usually takes 30 minutes and concludes with issuance of patrol car keys, beat assignments, and special instructions provided to the individual patrol officers. Officer Paddock and Officer Martinez are assigned to the beat known as D360.

Delta District, Patrol Division

Welcome to the Virtual Ride-A-Long! Be sure to click the links for more information

This is the begin of the Virtual Ride-a-long.

The public will be able to do a virtual ride-a-long from the comfort of home tonight, August 8, 2012 with the Corpus Christi Police Department from 5:30pm until 12:30am.

The Corpus Christi Police Department will show the photographs and announce the activity on Twitter as it happens. Anyone interested to experience the virtual ride-a-long with the Corpus Christi Police can follow the activity on Twitter @CorpusChristiPD. The Twitter message will begin at 5:30pm when the shift roll call happens, then document the officer’s activity through the entire shift.

The purpose of the event is to provide the public an example of the work day for a typical Corpus Christi Police Patrol Officer. This is the first such event the Corpus Christi Police Department has hosted. Followers on Twitter will be able to ask questions as the virtual ride-a-long happens.

The virtual ride-a-long will be with Corpus Christi Police Officer Trenade Paddock and the officer she trains from the 70th Police Academy Class as they patrol the Delta District Wednesday night.

Adam District, Criminal Investigations Division

Proper Collection of evidence by a patrol officer leads to solving a robbery

Occurred May 11th 2011 08:24  5401 Leopard Street Robbery  1105110030

Rene Manzano

Corpus Christi Police have identified a suspect involved in the robbery of Pockets Sports Bar last year.  A male suspect who was wearing a ski mask had demanded all the money from the cash registers, but there was none as the business was not yet open for the day.  The bar employee called 911 and the suspect fled.

Senior Officer Charlie Williams responded and a canvas of the area revealed the suspect’s shirt and ski mask near by. That evidence was carefully collected and submitted for DNA analysis.

In February of this year, CCPD detective Sergio Delgado was notified by DPS that the DNA from the items matched suspect Rene Manzano 07-09-66. At that time Detective Delgado attempted to contact Rene Manzano to obtain a sample of his DNA for confirmation. Rene Manzano could not be located. As he is a registered sex offender, Rene Manzano is required to register his current address with local law enforcement. Detective Delgado drafted a warrant for the arrest of Rene Manzano for Failure to Comply with Sexual registration and he was located by the U.S. Marshal task force.

Once in custody a sample of Rene Manzano’s DNA was taken and it was a positive match for the discarded mask and shirt from the robbery. Detective Delagado will be presenting the robbery case to the Nueces County District Attorney.

Uncategorized

Two Officers Graduate The Law Enforcement Management Institute Of Texas

    Chief John Hyland
Captain Jason Brady

 

John Hyland the Chief of Public Safety for the Corpus Christi International Airport and Jason Brady a Captain with the Corpus Christi Police Department recently graduated from the Leadership Command College – Class 67 of the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas. The program, taught by a consortium of universities throughout Texas, provides law enforcement administrators and executives with the skills necessary to effectively manage police agencies and deliver a high level of service to their communities.  Module I, focusing on leadership, is taught at the Center for Executive Development at Texas A&M University.  Module II at Texas Woman’s University focuses on the political, legal, and social environment of law enforcement.  The program concluded on August 3, 2012, with training in law enforcement administration at the third module, held at Sam Houston State University.

Each of the three 3-week modules attended by participants in the program is taught by top national and international law enforcement experts.  Topics include leadership, professional ethics and integrity, communication, and personnel management issues.  The Command College curriculum also strives to keep participants on top of contemporary issues in Criminal Justice.

This program is one of many offered by the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas, headquartered on the campus of Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.  The Institute, known as “LEMIT,” has been training law enforcement managers and executives since its inception in 1987. LEMIT offers numerous seminars, training for police chiefs, and the leadership program, which is one of the premiere law enforcement academies in the nation.  No tax monies are necessary to support LEMIT, which is funded by a surcharge on criminal court costs; affording eligible Texas Law Enforcement managers and executive’s essential professional development. Between one and two thousand Texas law enforcement personnel benefit from LEMIT training each year.

LEMIT point of contact for this release:                                                        Dara L. Glotzbach

                                                                                                                                   (936) 294-4807     

Traffic Safety Division

High Tech Parking Has Arrived

Contributed by Marc Denson:

Beginning today Tuesday, August 7th through Friday August 10th, the City of Corpus Christi will be installing 300 new credit card maters in the most frequented downtown and uptown areas. The project originally slated to be in place January 1 of this year was delayed for product upgrades and a production backlog. Rates on the credit card meters will be 75¢ per hour approved by City Council August 2011, but awaiting on the equipment to arrive.

These 300 credit card meters will still take coins, but also Visa and Mastercard and are self-explanatory. The city will then relocate the existing electronic meters eliminating all but about 100 of the old mechanical meters that are between 35-50 years old. The last 100 mechanical should be phased out later this year.  Manufactures quit making parts for most of these older meters 10 to 20 years ago causing cities to replace them as part inventories dwindled.

The new meters have an added ‘green’ aspect being solar-powered, eliminating the use of up to 1200 batteries per year. While initially running on cellular connections these meters will switch to the cities Wi-Fi network over the next several months producing even more operational savings. These meters also operate on a web-based management system which date stamps and inventories every transaction.

In most cities that have converted to this system 70-80% of all transactions are by credit card after the first 12 months. In Corpus Christi during the 90-day pilot program in early 2011, 38% of the transactions were with credit cards, which implies the same trend here. Another nationwide trait of credit card meters is increased meter revenue and decreased citations, by as much as 36%. These traits are contributed to the fact that most people carry little if any change, risking a citation over a small amount of change while almost everyone today carries credit cards.

Community Outreach, Delta District, Patrol Division

Corpus Christi Police Host Virtual Ride-A-Long

The public will be able to do a virtual ride-a-long from the comfort of home Wednesday, August 8, 2012 with the Corpus Christi Police Department from 5:30pm until 12:30am.

The Corpus Christi Police Department will show the photographs and announce the activity on Twitter as it happens. Anyone interested to experience the virtual ride-a-long with the Corpus Christi Police can follow the activity on Twitter @CorpusChristiPD. The Twitter message will begin at 5:30pm when the shift roll call happens, then document the officer’s activity through the entire shift.

The purpose of the event is to provide the public an example of the work day for a typical Corpus Christi Police Patrol Officer. This is the first such event the Corpus Christi Police Department has hosted. Followers on Twitter will be able to ask questions as the virtual ride-a-long happens.

The virtual ride-a-long will be with Corpus Christi Police Officer Trenade Paddock and the officer she trains from the 70th Police Academy Class, Officer Phillip Martinez, as they patrol the Delta District Wednesday night.

Visit the Corpus Christi Police Department twitter account and “follow” CorpusChristiPD to experience and participate in the first virtual ride-a-long with the Corpus Christi Police Department.

Officer Paddock is a single mother of 5 children that joined the Corpus Christi Police Department in 2009. Officer Paddock is currently enrolled at Texas A&M to complete her Master’s Degree in Counseling by next summer. Officer Paddock grew up in Bedford, Indiana and joined the Navy directly out of High School. Officer Paddock taught Physical Education in California for 8 years before returning to Indiana for 3 years to work in a hospital as a medical assistant. Officer Paddock moved to Corpus Christi 5 years ago and worked 2 years as part of Project Turnaround for the Coastal Bend AIDS Foundation. Officer Paddock was selected to serve on the Corpus Christi Police Honor Guard and is now assigned as a Field Training Officer for the 70th Police Academy Session.
Delta District, Patrol Division

Police Seek Man Who Set Lexus On Fire

Occurred Monday, August 06, 2012, 4:00am, 3002 Antelope, Arson 1208060025

A blue 1991 Lexus was burned at the Casa De Santa Fe Apartments Monday morning after a man broke out a back passenger window and threw an incendiary device into the car to start a fire.

A 35-year-old man told Police Officers that he saw a tan or champagne colored Chevy Tahoe stop next to the Lexus at about 4:00am. The 35-year-old man said a man got out of the Tahoe and broke the window on the Lexus and then threw a bottle with a flammable fluid inside the car to start a fire. The man who threw the bottle fled the scene immediately.

The 35-year-old man said he was able to extinguish the flames before the car was consumed by the fire. No person was injured in this event and no suspects have yet been identified. The 35-year-old man estimates the value of the damage to be about $2,000. Corpus Christi Police Arson Investigators are evaluating evidence to determine who may be responsible for this fire.

Anyone with additional information about this crime should call Crime Stoppers at 888-TIPS (8477) or submit an online tip at www.888TIPS.com. If the information provided to Crime Stoppers results in an arrest, it could earn the caller a cash reward.

Corpus Christi Police Daily Blotter