uncovered a pattern at Bexar County's Adult Probation Department: officers becoming romantically involved with the defendants they're supposed to be monitoring.See more on the story.
Disciplinary records tell of one probation officer passing information to a defendant she friended on Facebook. A supervisor using his county cell phone to call and text a probationer day and night. And one officer trying to intervene to keep police from arresting her fiancé who was on probation. That last instance was caught on SAPD dash-cam video. It was after 1:00 a.m. on a March morning.
And here's the kicker: This is arguably not the most embarrassing headline the department has faced in recent months.
Tom Zaldivar was a friend and mentor, so that line was a bit of a low blow regarding a really good probation officer.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the WOAI story, it amazes me how many CSCD employees are willing to risk their jobs and pensions over stupid things like this.
Well this certainly takes that "smart on crime" thing to a whole new level, huh?
ReplyDeleteDoes not surprise me. When the Chairman, Directors, and Legislators break the law, what do you expect? The so-called public servants at top are no better than anyone sitting in prison today,
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't surprise me some addicts use sex as a tool.
ReplyDelete@4:51, upon reflection you're probably right about that being an insensitive cheap shot on my part. Mea culpa.
ReplyDeleteGrits,
ReplyDeleteTom Zaldivar was one of my best friends!!! I have followed Grits for years. Tom was a Probation Officer you would have really liked! He cared about his coworkers and defendants. He worked very hard to help defendants be successful and complete probation. The probationers loved him and have been crying at each office visit since his death. That was a low and crude comment. We have plenty of information we could fill you with that shows this department is yet a disaster again but the loss of Tom is a terrible tragedy. Tom was an expert shooter. He went out to target practice because he was stressed at work and his hand hit the trigger on a draw to shoot by accident. Why was he stressed? The department is a mess. The work is unbearable! The staff can't keep up and the chief thinks CJAD and Austin love him. So, our chief JARVIS...Dictator Jarvis gives us tons of work, no help and mad Judges. The Judges are furious with the crappy work. This new TRAS is ugly. A two hour interview for a misdemeanor is crazy! We want to help defendants not overwhelm them as we are doing. I bet our revocation rate increases. There is so much wrong yet again in Bexar! Tom was stressed because of the mismanagement of the department. It was an accident but the staff blames Jarvis for his death. Not totally fair but Jarvis knows the stress level and just keeps adding more work. Two of his administrators have had strokes, one can't sleep unless medicated, most officers are seeking meds to cope and chiropractors. So the most embarrassing head line would be the truth " Dictator Chief kills his staff from stress because of low pay, high caseloads, crazy audits, piss labs with no results, crappy treatment, over bearing judges. I could go on and on. So, Jarvis needs to work on his staff and stay out of Austin - which has inflated his ego to where he treats his staff like servants!By the way I retired so I would not go on the stroke list!
There are many probation departments in Texas with high stress in general. The lege and administrative agencies have been promising probation "...if you do this and prison rates go down some of the money saved will go to fund probation." While numbers of offenders may be decreasing a little, the amount of work has been steadily increasing. Insurance costs are being paid with probation operation money that has been steadily increased every year cutting deeper and deeper into funds to perform probation work. This in no way excuses unethical, immoral, and sometimes illegal behavior in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't sound like union dues really do that much for you as a probation officer?
ReplyDeleteSeems to be too soon for jokes on the Bexar PO, Grits. But I guess I go for dark humor too because I audibly chuckled reading his colleague blaming "stress" for an "expert shooter" blowing off his junk. That's a weird story. Between that and the American sniper deal, I wonder how many people die from gunshots at shooting ranges? These are just two anecdotes but they're both pretty vivid.
ReplyDelete