By AMANDA KIMBLE
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (March 7, 2017) – Stephenville Police Department and Erath County Sheriff’s Office are reinforcing their bond.
At their Tuesday night meeting, Stephenville City Council approved two inter-local agreements between the police department, sheriff’s office and district attorney’s office that officials say will help streamline investigations.
Police Chief Jason King said the Stephenville Police Department and Erath County Sheriff’s Office are forming a special crimes unit to include officials from each department under a more formal arrangement than the past.
“The unit will be a fully integrated and work out of one facility with an agreed upon unit commander reporting to the chief of police and county sheriff,” King said. “The agreements also delineate procedures and disposition protocols for any assets seized as part of any criminal investigation by the special crimes unit.”
King said such an agreement had been addressed in the past, but timing or staffing prevented progress.
Erath County Sheriff Matt Coates said he’s excited about the newly forged partnership, which will give the county an entire unit – three city officers and one county deputy – to call on when responding to major crimes.
“There really is no downside for the county in this matter,” Coates said.
The four-person special crimes unit will have a main goal of combating the county’s drug problem, but in the case of major crimes, the team could be immediately activated by either King or Coates since both will have authority over the unit.
“Narcotics, in my opinion, is the beginning of all crime,” Coates said. “We will never do away with all crime, but the harder we can collectively hit the narcotics community, the bigger the blow to other criminal activities.”
District Attorney Alan Nash agreed, calling the agreement an impressive development.
“Over the years, we have seen how well our local law enforcement officials are at collaborating during emergencies, major investigations into crimes such as murder and during times when any of the agencies are shorthanded,” Nash said. “The special crimes unit will have our officers working together countywide in a collaborative effort, ferreting out narcotics and investigating burglaries and violent crimes with regard to the restriction of jurisdictional boundaries or uniforms.”
The district attorney said drug manufacturers, distributors, burglars and other criminals are collaborating across geographic boundaries, and the special crimes unit will make those types of crimes easier to solve. He said rather than having two independent investigations of burglaries by two agencies, the unified unit can work the cases as one to determine from the get-go if the crimes are related.
“The last few years, local media has had repeated reports of similar burglaries, moving from occasional business burglaries and into our neighborhoods and our homes,” Nash said, adding the investigation of the crimes often reveal a link to drug-related activity.
Coates also said the special crimes unit will also help combat manpower issues.
Meanwhile, King told the council that a new investigative tool “Cellebrite” will assist with investigations involving cell phones.
The needed equipment, including the devices and associated hardware and software have already been acquired by the sheriff’s office at a cost of about $10,000.
“To begin the program, Stephenville Police Department has funded all associated training costs for one SPD officer and one sheriff’s investigator,” King said. “Moving forward, each agency will be responsible for recertification of their own employees and costs for training of any new operators.”
An annual licensing fee will be divided equally between both law enforcement agencies and Nash’s office.
“Most, if not all crimes in some way involve cell phone communication,” Nash said, adding without local resources, law enforcement officials have had to week or months to get information download from suspect or witness devices.
“In times-sensitive investigations involving crimes such as sexual assault, it’s not helpful to the cases or victims to have to wait three months to get the information needed to proceed,” Nash added. “With the implementation of Cellebrite technology locally, we will be able to collect evidence from forensic scans within hours.”
Cell phone evidence has proved pivotal in murder, sexual assault and other cases during Nash’s service, giving juries information on exchanges between suspects and victims, evidence of a suspect’s proximity to a crime scene and more.
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