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Welcome to the Coastal Bend Peace Officers Association
There's much to see here. So, take your time, look around, and learn all there is to know about us. We hope you enjoy our site and take a moment to drop us a line.
Refugio County Sheriff Raul "Pinky" Gonzales
CBPOA President
Some scenes from our October 2022 meeting in sinton
roundtable with gov. abbott
Operation Lone Star Task Force Meets With The Governor
The Operation Lone Star Task Force hosted a roundtable discussion with Texas Governor Greg Abbott concerning the border invasion. Topics included the border as well as the highway corridors used by the cartels in their trafficking of humans, drugs, guns and money. Governor Abbott was pleased with the collaborative efforts of the taskforce. Governor Abbott was provided with the following stats to date:
Traffic Stops--12,654
Pursuits--322
Bailouts--204
Illegal Apprehended--2,186
Other Arrests--1,855
Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity Charges--179
Smuggling of Persons Charges--374
Vehicles Seized--258
Drug Seizures--196
Heroin--16 kilos
Cocaine--6 kilos
Methamphetamine--1.7 kilos
Marihuana--3.6 lbs.
Money Seized--$591,000
Stolen Vehicles Recovered--181
Firearms Recovered During Criminal Episodes--31
Brush Rescue Calls--324 (1,352 I/A's rescued)
Deceased I/A's recovered--84
Property Damages--$286,000
Without Governor Abbott and the Texas Legislature's OLS Grant funding, the Operation Lone Star Task Force would not exist. Thank you Governor Abbott for your tireless support.
Learn More
To learn more about the Operation Lone Star Task Force, you can check out the State of Texas website:
Operation Lone Star task force 'holding the line'
"It's Impossible To Get Everyone, Though"
(The Center Square) – A 20-agency Operation Lone Star Task Force is making headway interdicting cartel and gang activity stemming from the Texas-Mexico border along a major trafficking route to the so-called sanctuary city of Houston, officials say.
Task force participants have been described by many in law enforcement as the linebackers and safeties on a football team who act as the last line of defense against a massively funded and manned criminal enterprise.
Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd formed the task force and called out of semi-retirement a 40-year-plus law enforcement veteran, John Davis, to lead it. Davis says he’s never seen such a volume of people and drugs being moved north as he has since President Joe Biden took office. And with no defensive linemen at the line of scrimmage – the Rio Grande River – preventing cartels from having operational control of the border, task force members are battling unprecedented levels of crime, they say.
The criminal element has gotten so dangerous that Gov. Greg Abbott last month declared Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and called on Biden to do the same.
For years, multiple law enforcement agencies have combatted traffickers of people, weapons, drugs, money and stolen cars along highways 281, 77 and 59. But with an influx of people and drugs coming in from the border, cartel scouts are now searching in small towns and rural counties for locations to embed their operations, the task force said.
Davis said cartels “will come and set up in your back yard if you’re not fighting them. If you show no resistance to their efforts they will move into your area.”
Biden’s “open border policies,” members of the task force argue, have emboldened cartel activity, inundating small rural communities with crime they don’t have the resources to combat.
Were it not for Abbott’s OLS funding, Davis told The Center Square, the task force wouldn’t exist and these communities “would be in very, very dire straits. These sheriffs and police chiefs cannot handle the flow we’ve seen coming through on their own.
“Operation Lone Star funding is vital to the success of the safety of our citizens,” he added. Without it, he said, “it would be open season for the cartels. We are mitigating the consequences of the federal government’s refusal to follow the constitution and secure the border.”
Task force members include 12 sheriff’s offices, seven city police departments and a county attorney’s task force. They stretch from Wharton County in the north to Gonzalez and Wilson counties to the northwest, McMullen County to the west and Brooks County to the south.
It's dangerous work, Davis said.
“This may not be a declared war,” he said, “but it’s a war. I’ve spent my entire adult life doing this, but we get beat on a daily basis.” Despite their best efforts, Davis said task force members estimate they’re only catching 10% of those coming through.
During a 48-hour Refugio-Goliad Enhanced Interdiction, Investigation, and Intelligence Operation, for example, task force members made 110 traffic stops, 26 arrests, apprehended 13 foreign nationals in the country illegally including three fugitives (five warrants cleared), made five felony arrests, four misdemeanor arrests, apprehended one juvenile, recovered two stolen vehicles, seized two vehicles and three firearms, and made five drug seizures.
In a 96-hour operation in Live Oak and McMullen counties, task force members made 323 traffic stops, engaged in 12 vehicle pursuits including five bailouts, made 49 arrests including 15 felonies, 10 misdemeanors, six warrants, and turned over 18 illegal foreign nationals to Border Patrol. They made seven drug seizures, recovered four stolen vehicles and seized four vehicles and seven weapons.
“We can’t stop everyone heading north to Houston. We can’t secure the border. We can’t stop the floodgates of illegal immigration. But we are holding the line doing our part,” Davis told The Center Square.
“Cartel operatives are recruiting college kids,” he said. “They advertise on TikTok. They recruit in bars, on social media, at truck stops, and offer large sums of money to move their cargo – humans – north,” he said. “One reason this is so dangerous is because there’s often no ventilation in the 18-wheelers. They’re hauling scores of people with no water and no air and are willing to lose 10-15 people a truck load to get to Houston.”
In one case, an 18-wheeler was loaded with 84 people ready to head north, offficials said. Cartels just needed a driver, so they went on social media and published an ad offering $70,000 to anyone to drive the truck. Shared intelligence resulted in law enforcement in a border county finding the truck and rescuing everyone inside.
“There’s no way you can do this by individual county,” Davis said. “We have to work as a team as a force multiplier.”
Unlike other task forces that operate out of a central location, they work in their respective counties and cities sharing intelligence in real time to track and interdict criminal activity. As cartel scouts shift directions, they surge resources to intercept them.
“It all comes down to counties that are willing to fight,” Davis said. “If other counties to the west and along the western corridor were to establish their own task force, you’d see some of the same success we’ve seen.”
Learn More
To learn more about the Operation Lone Star Task Force, you can check out the State of Texas website:
Law enforcement encourage residents to check gate locks
Suspicious Activity On The Rise
On Tuesday night, the Operation Lone Star Taskforce member agencies assisted Live Oak County Sheriff’s Office and DPS as a series of pursuits came to an end in Live Oak County.
The Goliad County Sheriff’s Office called in DPS air support out of San Antonio while responding to the area.
The driver fled from the Live Oak Sheriff’s Office, wrecked on a rural road and then fled on foot. After an extensive search, units were unable to locate the driver.
Officials searched the vehicle and discovered tools used to gain access to gates and buildings. They also found a new padlock in the center console.
Law enforcement believe that this organization may be related to the recent cutting and attempted cutting of locks in the area. On Tuesday, the GCSO responded to the Weesatche area for a call of a lock on a gate being cut an replaced with another lock.
The Goliad County Sheriff’s Office encourages you to check your gates for suspicious activity and call them if you see something.
The GCSO provided the above information and photos.
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A day in the life of a recruit training officer
For Officer Macarena Garner, becoming an RTO is a dream fulfilled
By Cindy Arora, Behind the Badge
The first thing you notice about Officer Macarena Garner is she’s about 5 feet tall, maybe 5’1” when she’s wearing her Campaign Cover, which adds a bit of height due to its pointy top.
But to be clear, her size doesn’t slow her down as Bakersfield Police Department’s first full-time female Recruit Training Officer (RTO). In fact, she prides herself on knowing it’s the combination of her size, demeanor and ability to discipline that makes her a great mentor.
“The first two weeks at the academy is all about yelling and discipline,” said Garner. “It’s not that we are trying to break them. We are trying to show them a taste of what they are going to deal with out in the world. They have to be able to handle stress … they have to be able to deal with people who want to hurt them while yelling at them and still remain in control.”
For Garner, who has been with Bakersfield Police Department for the last seven years, becoming an RTO is a dream fulfilled. The Chile-born police officer arrived in Kern County when she was 17 years old. She finished her junior year at one of the local Bakersfield high schools and went on to Bakersfield College before she moved to San Diego to live beachside for several years.
Becoming a police officer was a calling, one she couldn’t tamp down even when she told herself that she didn’t have what it took to wear the uniform.
She was petite, didn’t have any family or friends in law enforcement, and the job felt out of reach. But as she got into her 20s and still sought her path, she always came back to being a police officer.
“It was a childhood dream that I pushed away. I was always hesitant because I didn’t think I had what it took … I was insecure,” Garner said. “But then one day I told myself if I don’t try then I will never know if I could’ve done it.”
Garner enrolled at Bakersfield Police Academy and told her parents she was going to become a police officer – a first for her family.
“In Chile, female police officers work office jobs. They don’t go out in the field, so my mom was fine with it until she asked me what I was going to be doing at the department and I told her I would be on patrol,” Garner laughed. “She was very surprised. But my family has been very, very supportive of me through the academy, graduation and now in my career.”
Since joining Bakersfield Police Department, Garner has worked as a patrol officer, joined the gang unit, and became a taser instructor and a field training officer. When she began working with new police officers, she realized she enjoyed teaching them.
She was asked to take a temporary role as a recruitment training officer at the Bakersfield Police Academy. She spent two weeks getting in the faces of new recruits and loved it. When she was asked to become the first full-time female officer, she was thrilled to break gender barriers.
“The department is very supportive, and all of the female officers are very supportive of one another,” Garner said. “Having me as an RTO has helped with the retention of female police recruits. I think having positive female role models helps recruits see there is a lot of opportunities here.”
Garner understands being tough will help her recruits out in the field in the long run.
“I am so passionate about this career,” she said. “I care about our recruits and don’t want them to get hurt. This fire sits inside of me that I bring to the position.”
For Garner, when she places the Campaign Cover on her head, the importance of her job, of turning civilians into police officers, is what allows her to go from understanding educator to disciplinarian.
It’s why at 4 a.m. she can leave her maternal role at the door and be who the recruits need her to be to get through the intensive program that she believes is 90 percent mental.
“If recruits are not mentally strong to do this job, they aren’t going to bother to get through the physical part of this job. There’s a shock with showing up (at the academy) on your first day,” said Garner. “There’s a stress that they aren’t used to feeling. They aren’t used to being told what to do, being confronted, being yelled at, or telling them what their mistakes are. And we try to make them mentally stronger to handle it. Every day you have to be motivated to come back and do it all over again.”
Hoof Patrol Program
San Patricio County S.O. is teaming up with Jim Wells, Bee & Refugio Counties on a Loose Livestock & Fence Damage program. These other counties have an active program in place that is aimed to help ranchers with animals that come loose. The program will be promoted through the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Association and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. They will start promoting the program soon with meetings at various locations. They plan to assign a deputy to manage the program & check on these ranches & extend the program to farmers as well. There is NO cost to Rancher or Farmer & San Patricio S.O. will provide the plate & registration.
About Us
Serving the Coastal Bend and it's Officers Since 1966
Serving the Coastal Bend and it's Officers Since 1966
Serving the Coastal Bend and it's Officers Since 1966
"The purpose of the CBPOA shall be to promote the cooperation and understanding of all persons involved in the enforcement of laws of the State of Texas and of the United States; the continued and convenient interchange of information and training between various Federal, State and local agencies, and to conduct ourselves in a manner that
"The purpose of the CBPOA shall be to promote the cooperation and understanding of all persons involved in the enforcement of laws of the State of Texas and of the United States; the continued and convenient interchange of information and training between various Federal, State and local agencies, and to conduct ourselves in a manner that will gain the respect of those we serve and to constantly strive to improve our position.'
Scholarships
Serving the Coastal Bend and it's Officers Since 1966
Serving the Coastal Bend and it's Officers Since 1966
The Coastal Bend Peace Officers Association is responsible for awarding thousands of dollars of scholarship money each year to qualified and responsible sons and daughters of CBPOA members who wish to carry on the tradition of law enforcement and law enforcement related fields.
Our Members
Serving the Coastal Bend and it's Officers Since 1966
Our Members
Whether you help through providing meeting locations, volunteering your time, or spreading our mission through word-of-mouth, thank you. We couldn't accomplish our goals without the help of members like you.