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Posted on 09/17/2026 6:24:37 AM PDT by Twotone
The Texas police department that arrested a mother for criticizing the town’s dirty drinking water on social media has been ordered to disband after the state ruled that it provided no “benefit to the community.”
The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement sent Trinidad Mayor Dennis Haws a letter on Sept. 9 revoking the city’s license to operate its own police department — determining the department had “failed to meet minimum standards” as a law enforcement entity, KETK reported.
The action followed an Aug. 5 investigation in which the department was found “unable to provide evidence that the agency provides public benefit to the community” and lacked 18 required policies, including ones on use of force, vehicle pursuit, professional conduct and active shooters, the commission said.
The investigation into the department was triggered after Jennifer Combs was arrested for felony false alarm or report and tossed in jail for a night in May following a Facebook post alleging that bacteria in Trinidad’s water pipes had hospitalized residents.
Police defended the arrest, claiming Combs’ post had created “fear, panic, or unnecessary emergency response within a community” — despite the city itself posting a notice urging residents to boil their water to “avoid harmful bacteria” on April 21, weeks before her arrest.
Despite the mounting contradictions, Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory doubled down — calling the case against Combs “cut and dry.”
Police also arrested a supporter of Combs, citizen journalist Winston Noles, for misdemeanor disorderly conduct after he displayed a “f–k bad cops” sign outside city hall, FOX 4 reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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No Police , HELLO CRIME
The population is about 800.
A good first step.
Having your entire police department kicked out of town and closed is quite the put down.
Or, perhaps, reduced crime.
I watched one of this lady’s videos. It was completely harmless, what she said and showed. The water looked terrible.
My understanding is that family members of either the cops or the mayor were being paid to remediate the town’s water problems. They apparently did nothing with the money. This lady simply showed how horrible it was, and they did this to her.
After that happened, a citizen journalist showed up to catch them being stupid with him, as well. They were again stupid.
How a 1,000 person town can afford a police department is beyond me. Where I grew up, you paid the sheriff’s department to patrol a bit more often.
All that town’s stupid, government-paid abusers should be in prison.
“No Police , HELLO CRIME”
In a town of 850 people it sounds like the police were the main law breakers.
It's a rural area and there still is law enforcement.
I read a couple pieces on this. There was a bunch of stuff wrong with this police department, basically they were worthless. Maybe even less than worthless. This incident with the woman was the straw that broke the camel’s back by bringing the state and to look at what a mess there was
But one thing that wasn’t mentioned, or perhaps I missed it, was involvement of any of the local political figures in This woman’s arrest. It strikes me as something the police would need a little bit of prodding from somebody in the city’s hierarchy to go that route.
I saw a video of the acting police chief addressing the town council, and he blamed the shut down on “bad publicity”. “Other police get bad publicity, they don’t get shut down.
No, it wasn’t the “bas publicity” - it was shut down because you weren’t following rules for police departments, and denying citizen’s first amendment rights. You take an oath to support and defend protect the Constitution.
This guy was on the Department when all this was going on.
If I was on the town council, I’d say “We have a lot invested in this police department, let’s do what we can to get it opened again.” At the same time, I wouldn’t put up with the pathetic excuses by the acting chief, I’d call him on it then and there - although the council members themselves are probably afraid of these clowns.
Less crime.
Nothing to stop citizens from eliminating criminals.
>>No Police , HELLO CRIME
In this case, the police were the crime. Good riddance to this department - start over with brand new people.
You don't know much, do you?
Tiny and small towns almost never have police departments. There are entities called “Sheriff's departments” that are the normal entities which patrol and respond, in those places. The State Police also make sure to get around, in rural areas.
They also only have full volunteer fire departments. So, no fire personnel, either.
How many police, fire, water, and other government staff can a rural town with a total population of 800 support, in your estimation? Figure in a large amount are kids and elderly persons, and a higher-than-normal number of stay-at-home mothers, making up the non-income producing proportion of potential tax payers.
So, maybe you have 250 - 300 people supporting the wages and retirements of how many town employees?
No. They will create a new police department.
It doesn’t work that way. The town will use the county sheriff resources to maintain the peace.
The real criminals in that city were the police.
There’s not much worse than corrupt cops -— or corrupt judges.
My town is twice Trinidad’s size and we have only ever had the County Sheriff patrolling the entire county of 4,600 backed up by TX State Troopers. Crime here is non-existent - if you don’t count the drunks and drug couriers trying to pass through on the one major state highway.
The county usually takes over i these situations. Most of the time, crime drops.
I’ve always thought that it’s a little strange for such a small town to go to the expense of having their own PD, rather than contracting with the county.
Usually, the reason given is something to do with response times and local control.
It’s the local control of a small group within the small town that sometimes leads to trouble.
Appears to be the case here.
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