Police association & Texas City mayor battle over current police leadership A Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA) survey revealed that Texas City officers have a lack of confidence under the leadership of Chief Landis Cravens. Cravens has been in the role since he was appointed on September 1, 2023. Not only was Chief Cravens mentioned in the survey, but Assistant Chief Manuel Johnson, who Cravens appointed was as well. The 59 question survey was given to the 91 members of the Texas City Municipal Police Association, however, only 67 took it. 1/3 or 24 of them did not. Some questions were: • I am fully confident in Chief Cravens ability to lead the department (54.5% or 36 people said “strongly disagree”) • Captain (now Assistant Chief) Manuel Johnson is a good manager of the patrol division (71.6% or 48 officers said “strongly disagree”) • I have no fear of retaliation from Chief Cravens for expressing my opinion (65.6% or 44 people said “strongly disagree”) • The overall morale at the Texas City Police Department has improved since Chief Cravens became Chief (70.1% or 47 officers said “strongly disagree”) However, 50 of the 67 officers who completed the survey said they wanted to be afforded the ability to finish out their career with Texas City Police Department. At Wednesday’s (8/7/2024) city commission meeting, a number of people shared their thoughts on Texas City’ police leadership. One of them was Leighton Guarnere, Field Representative for the Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA). He expressed his concerns about Cravens and Assistant Chief Johnson’s leadership. During public comment, Guarnere tried to give the survey to Texas City Mayor Dedrick Johnson who declined and told him to keep it. Guarnere said he recently attempted to meet with Cravens, who agreed, but cancelled 15 minutes before the scheduled time. Rachel Spahr, President of the Texas City Municipal Police Association (TCMPA), also showed up to speak about leadership concerns. On July 18, TCMPA decided that they no longer had confidence in Chief Cravens. The association also said they lacked confidence in Assistant Chief Johnson, as well. In a July 28 Facebook post by TCMPA: “The reasons for the lack of faith in these two stem from many unaddressed issues brought to their attention including but not limited to preferential treatment, the weaponization of the internal affairs process against upstanding officers who have fallen out of favor with their circle, wasted manpower of patrol officers and supervisors in an already fully staffed jail, the waste of department funds to enrich their friends private companies, and counterproductive micromanagement that cuts out first second and third line supervisors.” “Under the management of Cravens and Johnson, the internal morale and reputation of the Texas City Police Department within the surrounding law enforcement community have plummeted at unprecedented speed.” TCMPA also addressed concern regarding actions by Texas City Mayor Dedrick Johnson, who they said had released classified information on cases unrelated to the accusations of retaliation or favoritism that have been brought forward by TCMPA since the appointment of Chief Landis Cravens. “TCMPA finds Mayor Johnson's actions to be unprofessional and a breach of the confidentiality that is essential to the integrity of ongoing investigations and the trust of our officers and Texas City community members.” “Our Police Chief and Assistant Police Chief have my full support,” said Mayor Johnson. Despite refusing to look at the survey, Mayor Johnson said it was unfair, as Chief Cravens has “only been in office for 10 short months.” “I have never received a single citizen complaint about Chief Cravens,” Mayor Johnson added. However, he never said anything about complaints from any TCPD officers.

Posted by i45NOW Joey at 2024-08-08 01:12:03 UTC