DPS faces new grilling by Sunset Commission

DPS faces new grilling by Sunset Commission
Mansion fire security - and now Perry's criticism - add to tough times at DPS.
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

First came a critical legislative review that described the Department of Public Safety as a hidebound agency resistant to modernization. Then came revelations about sloppy security at the Governor's Mansion the night an arson fire nearly destroyed it.

On Monday, Gov. Rick Perry weighed in and gave the agency no quarter.

It's been a tough few months for DPS officials, who manage Texas' elite law enforcement agency — with little relief in sight.

Today, the embattled agency faces another public grilling at the Capitol over management and operations issues.

At a public hearing, the state Sunset Advisory Commission is to discuss a highly critical May report that recommends changes in how DPS does its business, from a promotion policy that critics claim contributes to a chronic shortage of state troopers to the agency's intelligence gathering on terrorism.

On Monday, Gov. Rick Perry, in his first public comments since the security shortcomings at the mansion were made public last week, joined other critics in questioning why top DPS brass did not have adequate security at the historical manse despite repeated warnings of problems.

"We're disappointed that there was not the response from some of those who realized that there were some lapses there and that the leadership had not accepted those," Perry told reporters Monday, adding that additional funding would not have solved the problem, as some DPS officials have suggested.

Even top DPS officials do not appear to be on the same page about how to clear up some questions raised in the Sunset report, although those could be resolved today in an unusual emergency meeting of the agency's governing board, just before the Sunset Commission begins its public hearing.

"There are a number of issues that are on the table," said Allan Polunsky, a San Antonio attorney who chairs the Texas Public Safety Commission, the department's governing board. "That's one of the reasons that we're having an organizational assessment done on the entire department."

With Perry and legislative leaders queued up to get answers for the growing list of reported problems at DPS, officials there insist many of the issues are beyond their control. And while they are mostly mum publicly, not wanting to irritate the state's leadership at a time when their budget and future could hang in the balance, troopers' advocacy groups say the basic problem is simple.

"They're just stretched too darn thin," said Don Dickson, an Austin lawyer who represents the Texas State Troopers Association, a lobby group. "The agency doesn't have enough people to do the job."

"It's a damned shame the Governor's Mansion had to burn to get this point across."

According to DPS officials, the agency is 248 troopers short of its authorized strength of 3,458.

And with as many as 100 or more troopers expected to retire in August — when they become eligible with 30 years of service — the department could be down as many as 600 in coming years, officials said.

"Blame this on the baby boomers," department spokeswoman Tela Mange said. "As they age out, we expect they will leave. Plus, we're seeing a lot of competition from federal and local law enforcement agencies, the military and private security companies."

While department officials will not discuss specifics of the trooper shortage and how it affects law enforcement, they insist the agency is maximizing its stretched resources.

"We do the absolute best we can with the resources we have and the responsibilities we have," Mange said.

Other states are facing much the same problem, she and officials in other states said.

Amid that shortage, officials reassigned 20 troopers to the Capitol complex to beef up security in the aftermath of the mansion fire. And dozens more have been redeployed to counties along the Mexican border at Perry's urging to crack down on immigrant smuggling and a crime spree related to Mexico's warring drug cartels.

"We have whole counties without coverage," Dickson said.

Mange and other DPS officials said they do not discuss security specifics and cannot respond to Dickson's assertion.

In preliminary findings, the agency acknowledged that too few troopers had been assigned to guard the mansion, that the officers stationed there had been poorly trained in operating the security cameras and infrared intruder sensors, and that the flaws had gone uncorrected for months.

At its meeting last week, the Public Safety Commission gave hints that there is disagreement on what should be done.

Commissioner Tom Clowe said he does not necessarily favor a Sunset recommendation to apply a "civilian business management model" to the driver's license bureau, a move that could add civilian staffers to replace troopers so that the troopers could be assigned to law enforcement duties.

In addition, there appeared to be differing opinions on another Sunset recommendation to modify the department's longstanding promotion policy to allow troopers to ask for assignment to specific cities and towns. Under current policy, the agency can require them to move for a promotion.

Other findings in the Sunset report: The agency poorly manages the vehicle inspection program, and it should be turned over to civilian operation; the agency's current program for handling suspended driver's licenses "wastes government resources"; and the agency should review its entire management and organizational structure — unchanged for years — amid concerns that it may be outdated and cumbersome.

Polunsky said he supports anything that will make the agency more effective and efficient without compromising public safety. Dickson said he, too, supports reforms to a bureaucracy that he insists has long been known for its "bullheaded, ham-fisted personnel policies."

"It's going to take both the Legislature and the department to fix this," he said.

mward@statesman.com; 445-1712