Photo by Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
By Roberto Hugo Gonzalez
As originally published by Texas Border Business newsprint edition November 2016.
For years, dedicated and professional people have worked for the City of McAllen. Among these dedicated individuals is Victor Rodriguez, its Chief of Police who leads the brave officers of the McAllen Police Department.
Chief of Police Victor Rodriguez was hired by the City Commissioners in 2001. Prior to that, his career in law enforcement was in constant ascent. This year, he is starting his sixteenth year leading the McAllen Police Department (MPD). His unique style of participation with the community, at any time, is his professional trademark of service to the citizens of McAllen.
In a city with approximately 144,000 credited population, and with at least 40,000-day population, crossing back and forth from the international bridges on any given day, makes the city extremely busy. Under these circumstances, the importance of having a safe city is a critical element for continued success in business, which is a daily routine for the city.
On top of that, he told Texas Border Business that McAllen is the home of the largest community college with a population upwards of 20,000 in their campuses.
Chief Rodriguez commands 285 police officers and 145 civilian positions. He said, “We are 430 employees, it is the largest department in the city of McAllen.” According to Chief Rodriguez, that is one fourth of all the employees of the city under one department.
It is important to note that Chief Rodriguez works with a budget of approximately $34 million a year. He attributes the success of his department to well-trained officers and personnel and the fact that this city has good political leadership. “We are one of the better resourced police departments in terms of staffing and equipment, that allows us to deliver the best service that we can.”
The police department is the center of multiple tasks; everything that goes on there impacts the city’s image, safety, and above all the quality of life of its citizens and visitors.
To give us an idea of what happens in his call center, Chief Rodriguez said, “We answer between 150,000 and 160,000 calls of service every year. That places us at answering one call for service every three minutes.”
The reasons for the calls vary; to break them up and put them into classifications, they answer one call for service for crime against a person report every 2-1/2 hours; One request for assistance every 8 minutes; One alarm call is answered every 34 minutes; One suspicious person or circumstance call every 48 minutes; One false or 911 call every 5 hours; and one accident scene every 60 minutes.
Chief Rodriguez explained, “There is one accident in the city of McAllen every hour, on the hour 24/7, 365 days a year. We have about 8,000 accidents a year in the city of McAllen.”
He also said that his department answer one repossession type call every 10 hours. “We answer one crime against property call every 88 minutes. We conduct one traffic stop every 24 minutes, one disturbance call every 46 minutes, and one traffic full problem every 87 minutes. In addition, we answer a burglary call every 14 minutes; that gives you an idea more or less what happens every 3 minutes in the city of McAllen.”
He also said that they answer about 100 calls a year that end up in mental health evaluations and transportations in McAllen. Concerning the training to handle these type of cases, he said, “Every one of our officers has to meet a minimum state requirement for mental health care. We have instructors and we have some people that even hold higher training in that field.”
Chief Rodriguez stated that there are two areas where they have their primary focus with uninterrupted attention and that is terrorism and violence against police officers. “Those two areas are dominating our attention.” He said, “The world got a lot smaller after the events of 9/11 and because the current events are making the world even smaller.”
In these areaa, McAllen is taking the lead and is constantly engaged with state and federal agencies. “We are developing projects with the state and with federal agencies as we move forward. One of them is what we call the South Texas Intelligence Center.”
Chief Rodriguez said that they are in the midst of building that facility in partnership with the State of Texas, the Department of Public Safety (DPS), and with the Hidalgo Sherriff’s Department. “Our federal partners as well as McAllen; we are running lead on that.”
He pointed out that they are looking at bringing $5 million to reconstruct the former McAllen PD headquarters of which will also house a Violent Gang Unit Enforcement that will be one of the largest in the area.
What has been the challenge for you? “It’s not been a difficult sell for us here at McAllen PD as far as I’m concerned.” He said that his department is fortunate in getting things done. “From a support standpoint, the elected officials have provided the resources, and the equipment and all the other things that we need to get the job done.”
Aside from the massive activity of the call center, he mentioned a list of projects that he and his department have undertaken. “We finished this building by adding 16,000 square feet to it and building a parking deck garage behind our department.” He continued, “We added northwest area; we added a training center; and we have Los Encinos, a sub-facility, as well.”
It is easy to understand that Chief Rodriguez does not see his job as a challenge or difficult. He says, “Those are all things we are doing with McAllen PD at the leadership position.”
Aside from keeping the city safe, part of management’s responsibility at his level is to make sure to plan for the future. He said there are two areas of growth where more infrastructure will be deeded. One of them is the southeast corner of McAllen in the area which he calls the medical district and the Tres Lagos master community. “This one in particular is so far north of our facility that probably the northwest area could be renamed as Central,” he stated. Based on the growth population tables for the future, in 15 years, McAllen will have about 200,000 population.
Being the Chief of Police of a vibrant city is more than a full time job. “I start my days at 5:00 a.m., that’s the time I get here every day.” He says that sometimes he returns home at 4:00 p.m. and sometimes at 8:00 at night. There are some occasions when he doesn’t return home until the day is over. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Thursday, Friday, or Saturday and Sunday.” He continued, “When you accept doing this kind of work there is no, “Friday 5:00 PM; I’m gone fishing,” kind of stuff; that just doesn’t happen here.”
The performance of the city is important to him, he said, “McAllen is the retail capital of South Texas.” Chief Rodriguez explained that the city of McAllen does more retail sales than the entirety of Cameron County every month. The city of McAllen has twice more retail sales than Brownsville does every month; the city of McAllen does twice what Laredo does every month. “These are big cities,” he stated.
But the area where he is directly responsible is the crime in the city. Chief Rodriguez says, “The crime volume and the crime rates in McAllen at the end of December of 2015 were recorded as the sixth annual back to back crime volume and crime rate reductions in McAllen.”
He stated that at the end of 2015, the city recorded the lowest crime in McAllen in the last 25 years. “The crime today is lower than it was 26 years ago. We are on track this year to maybe record our seventh consecutive crime volume-crime rate reduction in McAllen. It is also true that the saturation of state law enforcement efforts has helped us suppress that crime,” he said.
“Above all, I credit the courage and spirit of service of the police officers and the civil personnel of the McAllen Police Department for that success in keeping the city safe,” he finalized. TBB
