San Antonio Police Department

The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of San Antonio, Texas, United States and some surrounding areas. Its headquarters are at South Santa Rosa district. SAPD is one of the largest municipal police department in Texas.

San Antonio Police Department
AbbreviationSAPD
Agency overview
Formed1846 [1]
Employees2,991 (2020)[2]
Annual budget$479 m (2020)[3]
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionSan Antonio, Texas, USA
Map of San Antonio Police Department's jurisdiction.
Size465.4 square miles (1,210 km2)
Population1,492,510 (2017)[4]
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters315 S. Santa Rosa
Police officers2,352 (2020)
Unsworn members639 (2020)
Elected officer responsible
Agency executives
  • William McManus[5], Chief of Police
  • Anthony Treviño, Assistant Chief over the Operations Bureau
  • James Flavin, Assistant Chief and commander of the Operations Support Bureau
Website
www.sanantonio.gov/SAPD

The current chief of police is William McManus, who is known, among other things, for his aggressive stance on those who verbally insult police officers.[6][7][8][9]

History

Early law enforcement in San Antonio begins with the alguacils of the Villa de San Fernando de Bexar and progresses to the Texas Rangers, vigilantes, and City Marshals of early San Antonio.[10]

Officers are issued the Smith & Wesson M&P .40 S&W as the sidearm. Prior officers were issued the Glock 22 .40 caliber pistol which had been used since the early 1990s. Prior to the Glock officers were issued .357 magnum Smith & Wesson Model 65-2 revolvers.

Organization

The San Antonio Police Department's organization includes a chief of police a command and executive staff,[11] and the use of community crime mapping.[12]

Controversy

Civil rights violations lawsuit

In August 2016, during a search on the street, a female officer pulled down a female citizen's shorts and underwear and pulled a tampon out of the woman's vagina, in public, right on the street in the daytime, and in front of five male officers who were watching as well any passersbys who were around.[13] The woman sued the City of Antonio in a Federal civil rights lawsuit stating that her constitutional rights had been violated.[13] In October 2019, the City of San Antonio agreed to pay the woman $205,000 to settle the case.[14]

Misconduct arbitration

In July 2020, the Mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg, stated concerns about practices involving arbitrators reinstating police officers after the officers were fired by the chief of police for misconduct.[15] Specifically, an instance of misconduct involved a San Antonio police officer that "allegedly tried to give a homeless man a sandwich filled with dog feces", another involved an officer stating to a man that he would let him free if he could win in a fistfight with the officer, and a third instance involved an officer fired in January 2019 repeatedly using "the n-word as he arrested a Black man for trespassing at a mall".[15][16] The firings of these three officers by the police chief were overturned by an arbitrator, allowing them to return to police work.[15] In response to such matters, Nirenberg stated to CNN, "We've seen too many cases where the arbitrator has overturned the chief's decision when it's as clear as day that that officer accused of misconduct should no longer be on the force. It's egregious."[15]

The officer who allegedly attempted to give a homeless man a sandwich with dog feces in it was later fired again for another alleged misconduct incident, in which it is alleged that in June 2016 the officer defecated in a women's only restroom toilet and spread "a brown, feces-like substance" on the toilet while on bike patrol.[17][18] The officer's partner also allegedly defecated in the women's only toilet.[18] In this matter, the arbitrator sided with the chief of police's firing regarding the alleged incident, and the officer was not reinstated to the force.[17][19]

For the time period of approximately July 2010 to July 2020 (reported in July 2020 as "over the last decade"), 24 cases involving police officers being fired for misconduct have been adjudicated by an independent arbitrator, and 10 officers from these 24 cases were given their jobs back.[17]

Ranks

Below are the current ranks of the San Antonio Police Department.[20]

Rank Insignia
Chief
Assistant Chief
Deputy Chief
Captain
Lieutenant
Sergeant
Detective-Investigator
Police Officer N/A
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See also


References
  1. Durain, Leah (January 24, 1955). "SAPD history preserved in vintage photos". KENS. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  2. Sullivan, Carl; Baranauckas, Carla (June 26, 2020). "Here's how much money goes to police departments in largest cities across the U.S." USA Today. Archived from the original on July 14, 2020.
  3. "Adopted Annual Budget for Fiscal Year 2020" (PDF). City of San Antonio, Office of Management & Budget. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
  4. Bureau, U.S. Census. "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  5. "Police Chief". Sanantonio.gov. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  6. "Message From The Chief". Sanantonio.gov. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  7. Caltabiano, David (March 10, 2019). "Local YouTuber speaks out after conviction". WOAI. Retrieved March 11, 2019. When you get into an officers face and hurl insults, that's verbal assault and not a first amendment protected right
  8. Beltran, Jacob; Downs, Caleb (March 6, 2019). "Activist found guilty for disorderly conduct during incident with San Antonio SWAT". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved March 11, 2019. McManus applauded Padilla’s conviction Wednesday. He said the court’s decision “almost puts a dagger in the heart of their First Amendment excuse for insulting police officers.”
  9. "City of San Antonio Successfully Prosecutes Individual for Disrupting Police Officers during Course of Duty". The City of San Antonio - Official City Website. Retrieved March 11, 2019. "[... V]erbal attacks against us simply for wearing a uniform and performing our duties does not represent the spirit of the law,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus
  10. "History". Sanantonio.gov. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  11. "Leadership Chart" (PDF). Sanantonio.gov. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  12. "LexisNexis® Community Crime Map". Communitycrimemap.com. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  13. Einbinder, Nicole (October 16, 2019). "A woman is suing the city of San Antonio after a police officer pulled out her tampon in public". Insider. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  14. Nowlin, Sanford (October 18, 2019). "San Antonio Settles Lawsuit With Woman Who Said Police Searched Her Vagina in the Street and Removed Her Tampon - The Daily". San Antonio Current. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  15. Tolan, Casey; Black, Nelli; Griffin, Drew (July 2, 2020). "How police unions protect officers fired for bad behavior". CNN. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  16. Fink, Jenni (June 23, 2020). "'Goddamn' as Offensive as the N-Word, Says San Antonio Police Union President". Newsweek. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  17. Medina, Mariah (July 2, 2020). "'In most cases, the city gets their desired outcome,' San Antonio police union says of cop discipline data". KENS. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  18. Medina, Mariah (February 24, 2020). "'No one wants him back': Fired officer asks for job back following feces-related incidents". KENS. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  19. Tracy, Gerald (June 19, 2020). "Feces sandwich officer denied reinstatement to San Antonio police". WOAI-TV. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
  20. "San Antonio Police Department - Leadership Chart. Sanantonio.gov. Retrieved July 4, 2020.

Further reading
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