It’s far too easy for bad cops in Texas to get hired at other departments.
Former San Antonio police officer Matthew Luckhurst, who allegedly gave a feces sandwich to a homeless man, was hired as a reserve officer in Floresville.on the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, coupled with reporting by the San Antonio Express-News, reveals a gaping hole through which police officers behaving badly can hop from one department to the next without detection.
This raises many questions: Are there cops with equally egregious behavior flying under the radar? Why aren’t agencies speaking with each other during the hiring process? How could the Floresville Police Department hire Luckhurst given his background and reputation in San Antonio? How does the state hold officers and police departments accountable?told us Luckhurst’s hiring boils down to a “lousy background investigation.
Recommendations from the commission include directing TCOLE to work with the Department of Public Safety to subscribe to fingerprint-based criminal background checks for all licensure applicants and licensees; and to explicitly give TCOLE the authority to temporarily suspend a license in cases of imminent threat to public health, safety or welfare and require a timeline for due process hearings.
“I currently hold a private pilot , a Texas insurance agent license, a Texas real estate license and a Texas peace officer license, and peace officers are the only that do not follow this procedure,” she said in November, according to meeting documents.
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