DEL RIO, Texas — Various smaller counties in Texas have limited resources and lack the manpower to track down dangerous criminals who’ve fled their jurisdiction. But that’s about to change for some west Texas border counties.
In a ceremony Wednesday in Del Rio, United States Marshall Susan Pamerleau swore in eight new members of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force.
“Task force officers are vital to the success of the whole team, together enabling us to keep our communities safe and take off the streets those who are a danger to our neighborhoods,” Pamereleau said.
When counties and city police in these areas have a case on a violent crime, they can call on the LSFTF, and if the case meets certain requirements, the task force will use all the resources they have to help and go after the person accused of the crime.
It’s a partnership that will allow law enforcement officers like Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson access to out-of-reach resources to track down the violent fugitives.
“When people commit a crime in my jurisdiction, to my constituents, to my citizens, and then run off and think, ‘I’m okay, I’m good and clean because you don’t have the resources to come get me,’” said Johnson. “Well, that’s not going to happen anymore.”
Johnson said Real County, north of Uvalde County, is small in both population and size.
“We have our list of warrants that the court wants them to come back and face the judge and the system, and if they abscond to places unknown, it’s very hard for small agencies to devote the manpower,” Johnson said.
The sheriff said he has four deputies in addition to himself, adding it’s hard to track down fugitives when they flee the county. He said in the past suspects have fled to faraway states like Washington or Idaho.
Sheriff Pamela Elliott has a similar situation in Edwards County.
Elliott said she has five deputies (in addition to herself) to patrol over 2,000 square miles of the county.
“The warrants—they never go away. The cases keep coming,” Elliott said.
Law enforcement in these counties said they’re challenged with crimes like murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault and human smuggling.
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber said his county also has to contend with criminals coming in from Mexico.
“We have criminal elements crossing the river on the border from Mexico to the USA, and we have possible terrorists coming in, and we have to be on the lookout for that,” he said.
Schmerber wouldn’t disclose how many deputies are on his staff, but said it’s not enough to cover the county.
“We’re very limited in manpower. We have a very large county, and we have to cover all the areas, and we have deputies that are running back and forth—sometimes it takes like 20 minutes to get from one area to another,” he said.
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Johnson shared examples of fugitives who committed aggravated assaults and kidnappings.
“We don’t experience anything different than the big city does. It’s just on a smaller scale, but there’s less of us to deal with it,” Johnson said. .
He said he’s looking forward to getting help on a couple of old cases of sexual assault of a child.
“These are cases where these people have never been held accountable and responsible for violating a small child. That’s heavy on my heart. It’s something that we searched and looked, but we’ve used all of our resources, we can’t take it any further, now will be able to take it to the next level.”
These sheriffs all agree the extra manpower will make a difference locating these fugitives.
“I can’t run to San Antonio all the time to chase someone down on a warrant, so this task force will enable us to put more people out there on the streets,” Elliott said.
The task force allows for a larger network of law enforcement reaching all over the U.S.
“It keeps our neighborhood safe. It keeps our community safe,” Pamerleau said. “With this kind of capability, they can run...but they can’t hide.”
It’s a force multiplied that authorities hope sends a message to criminals.
“If you commit a crime in Real County, we have every intention of bringing you back and holding you accountable,” Johnson said.
In addition to Sheriffs Johnson and Elliott, other officers were sworn in from Zavala County, Kinney County, Uvalde Police Department and the Val Verde Sheriff’s Office.
Three agents from Homeland Security Investigations were also sworn in.