While perusing the Chronicle over the past couple of days, I came across this article about the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission quietly suspending a program of stepping up arrests of intoxicated bar patrons after state legislators scheduled a hearing this week to investigate complaints from the public ó and legislators ó about how the arrests were being carried out.
I’m not a patron of bars, so I didn’t think much more about the article until yesterday, when I read this follow-up article about the hearing. State Senator John Whitmire of Houston, who co-chaired the hearing and is usually quite supportive of the TABC, was reportedly outraged by the “cowboy attitude” exhibited by TABC agents, which included storming targeted bars while outfitted in full-SWAT team gear. Other committee members reported stories of patrons forced up against a wall en masse. In fact, a number of witnesses testified about being arrested without a sobriety test and, in one case, of being arrested after passing a Breathalyzer test. At one point, TABC even invited a local television camera crew to film their sting operations!
Now, let me get this straight. Alcohol control agents are dressing in SWAT gear to raid bars where people are drinking, all for a spot on the 10 o’clock news?
My sense is that we could use a bit of housecleaning at the TABC.
Houston's Clear Thinkers
Longtime Houston attorney Tom Kirkendall's observations on developments in law, business, medicine, culture, sports, and other matters of general interest to the Houston business, professional, and academic communities.
The trend in law enforcement is high powered, attack style SWAT operations. The feds have given local departments money and they are using it to buy assault type weaponry that the local police are inventing situations for. Clearly there is a need for a voice of reason that will emphasize community engagement as a priority of law enforcement and no automatic weapons as a priority of law enforcement. We see it here in Houston with Metro not ensuring safety of at grade light rail crossing but finding respources for a SWAT team (why we even have a separate Metro police force is a mystery to me). The TABC debacle is just another example of law enforcement deciding it is more exciting to engage SWAT type operations instead of community engagement. My suggestion is a change of leadership at TABC that will make community engagement a priority. I don’t think you can expect the current leadership at TABC to change. They clearly don’t understand what effective law enforcement is all about.