Texas officials are pulling the plug on a tiny town's police force after deciding it wasn't helping the public. The Trinidad Police Department, which employs five full-time officers and several part-timers, has been ordered to shut down effective Friday following a state investigation triggered by the arrest of resident Jennifer Combs over a Facebook post about dirty tap water and alleged illnesses, per the Dallas Morning News and Independent. Combs was handcuffed during her arrest and spent nearly 24 hours behind bars.
At the time, Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory said that Combs' claims about hospitalizations over tainted water were "simply false and have only caused unnecessary fear and confusion in our community." Charges against Combs were ultimately dropped, but regulators have since found the police department failed to meet minimum standards, didn't show it benefited the community, and lacked basics like bulletproof vests and an evidence room.
The police chief and multiple city officials have since resigned, and Henderson County deputies will take over policing while Trinidad, located about 70 miles southeast of Dallas, weighs its options. "We were never the problem," Combs later wrote. "We were exposing it." Trinidad's mayor, meanwhile, just wants to go forward. "We are moving in a positive direction," Dennis Haws tells FOX 4. "We've got to get past all of this."
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