SMPD: 2023 saw a 30% reduction in violent crime

The San Marcos City Council received a presentation from San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge, which discussed the San Marcos Police Department’s efforts to work with the community to reduce violent crime and to provide services to community members experiencing mental health issues. The discussion provided a review of new programs as well as advances in technology and staffing with a specific focus on mental health services provided to the community.

San Marcos City Manager Stephanie Reyes said there is a Criminal Justice Reform Committee that San Marcos City Council Member Shane Scott, San Marcos City Council Member Alyssa Garza and San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson serve on.

She said that the city is putting a lot of effort into avoiding the criminalization of those suffering from mental health disorders.

“In 2023, our city experienced the first reduction in violent crime since 2014,” Reyes said. “This can be attributed to greater community engagement, more public education and a police department that has worked hard to implement intelligence led policing and technology under Chief Standridge’s leadership.”

Standridge said that in 2023, there was a 30% reduction in violent crime in San Marcos, but the types of crime have remained the same. In 2023, he said 1 in 36 people were reportedly victims of a crime.

“In 2023, we had over 50,000 citizen contacts, and those were basically calls for service. Of which, we had 60 use of force incidents,” Standridge said. “The predominant use of force remains the taser. I researched it a bit further, more specifically, our analyst Martha Chumchal researched it a bit further. And she said, ‘the primary reason the officers are using force is in the process of trying to … [initiate] a lawful arrest and people are resisting.’” Standridge said there were seven pursuits in 2023, which was two less than 2022. He said in 2023, 29% of the pursuits were aborted, 71% of the pursuits were kept within 10 miles, two pursuits involved alcohol/ drugs and zero pursuits caused injury.

“We preach a lot internally about need vs. risk. If the risk outweighs the need to apprehend the offender then we abort the pursuit,” Standridge said.

In 2023, Standridge said there were 57 personal injuries in which the officers were injured and most were associated with joint trauma or pain or impact trauma or pain, and there were several instances in which smoke and chemicals were inhaled. The injuries were caused by calls for service 33% of the time and arresting a resisting subject 33% of the time.

Standridge said the officers logged 2 million driving miles in 2023, and there were 45 fleet vehicle accidents.

“This means we averaged one crash every 42,000 miles,” Standridge said, adding that the majority of crashes occurred while backing up and four were deer strikes. “18 of those were preventable and 27 were non-preventable.”

Standridge said accountability is a pivotal part of policing. He said the Event Review Board was started in 2021 to ensure there were timely reviews by an impartial audience on a monthly basis, which is composed of a couple of officers, a couple of supervisors, San Marcos risk management, the chair is San Marcos Night Patrol Commander Tiffany Williams and the co-chair is San Marcos Night Patrol Commander Sam Meyers. He said the Event Review Board reviews all incidents, including crashes, uses of force, pursuits and significant injuries. The board looks for training deficiencies, policy deficiencies, what was done well and anything that warrants corrective action. He said in 2023, there were 81 incidents, and five internal investigations were conducted.

In 2023, Standridge said SMPD on-boarded 31 new employees, including a Crime Analyst, four Police Service Specialists, two Crime Scene Investigators, one Record Specialist, five Cadets, nine Lateral Officers, two Police Assistants and seven Telecommunicators. He said the goal is to have the department fully staffed by the end of 2024.

“We have four actual vacancies on the sworn side,” Standridge said, adding that there are 17 functional vacant positions that are actually filled but still in training. “We’re working day to day without 17% of our sworn workforce.”

Standridge introduced the first San Marcos Public Safety Communication Specialist Khameyah Taylor. Standridge thanked the council for the funding allocation for Taylor’s position, because he said she would be a valuable asset to the department in terms of education, which he believes should be at the root of crime prevention.

“I come from the Food Bank where I harbored a lot of good, wholesome relationships with a diverse community,” Taylor said. “I have a few goals and that is to foster and improve support in our communications, our transparency and our trust. I look forward to any opportunities and challenges that come my way in that aspect.”

Standridge mentioned the Chief’s Advisory Panel, which according to the city of San Marcos website, is a resource for the formation of strategies, development of community policing concepts, solicitation of community feedback and enhancement of community trust. Several of the panel members were present including Barbara Saucedo, James Bryant, Stephanie Korcheck and Amy McAllister.

“They want to advocate on behalf of our citizens,” Standridge said. “If you need an ambassador, if you need somebody to present your interests to the police department maybe because, worst case scenario, it’s fallen on deaf ears, please reach out to members of the Chief ’s Advisory Panel. We actually have an email setup [chiefadvisorypanel@ sanmarcostx. gov]. You can directly contact them, and they in turn will contact us so we can remedy the issue.” Standridge listed some of the projects in the works related to community safety and mental health. He said that in June of this year, the department will have the first large-scale active attack exercise in San Marcos, based on direction by San Marcos Assistant City Manager Chase Stapp. He said in 2023 the department added to its staff the Qualified Mental Health Professional Kelly Castillo, who is a master’s level social worker. He said in the future he would like to add some aspect of community paramedicine to the unit as well.

“Kelly rides in the unit with the mental health unit. They’ve become a co-responder unit,” Standridge said “So you have a peace officer on scene, but you have a licensed QMHP right there with the peace officer. The value to that is case management and case access. Kelly has access to their system. We have access to our system, so we’re going to make a better decision out there in the field.”

Standridge said in 2023, SMPD added a new Police Service Specialist team, which involves full-time citizen employees providing frontline services that do not require a weapon.

“You now have five fulltime civilians who are the front end of all report taking that does not necessitate a peace officer,” Standridge said, adding that this can be used in situations where there is no suspect on scene. “Everytime we send a civilian to that call, you keep the peace officer available to combat violent crime.”

Standridge said a group of stakeholders met for the first time recently to attempt to identify a comprehensive plan for crime reduction from a social sciences perspective, which includes one person with lived experience.

Standridge said in 2023, the SMPD took part in or led 99 community events, which translates to approximately 25,508 community contacts.