Texas DPS Captain Tellez and Lieutenant King spoke to the Rotary Club of Uvalde members Thursday, May 11th about the Texas DPS presence in town this past year and their work in providing security for Uvalde CISD campuses and events.
“At the end of the day, we are here to safeguard the community, ” King said. Both Tellez and King said they have been stationed in Uvalde during the school year. After graduation, Tellez will be leaving, but King will continue to be here.
“We knew we couldn’t just be in the school just watching the kids providing security. We knew that being a part of the community would be a huge, huge tasking for us,” Tellez said. He continued by saying the tipping point for them to get deeply involved in the community was the Halloween parade. It was a very strong event for us and we enjoyed it and we got hit by three Jolly Ranchers. (He was referring to all the candy that is thrown during the parade.)
The officers stated that DPS traveled with Uvalde CISD students on trips around the state when students attended school related events. “We have people from the outlying areas that extend to all branches of the state of Texas. (They say) we know that wherever there is a Uvalde school bus, there will be some black and whites behind them,” Tellez said. We have gone to Dallas, Huston, Austin, Laredo, McAllen where the school went, we went,” Tellez said.
According to Tellez, after high school graduation in May, DPS would have a smaller footprint but we won’t have DPS presence at every school in Uvalde, but King Lieutenant King will be overseeing school operations.
Lieutenant King said the partnership of the community has been important.
“Once we came here, we made it a priority we show the love and support to the kids, the staff , the teacher and the community,” Kind said.
Lieutenant King told a story of when a book fair happened at Batesville school. Some of the kids didn’t have funds. Some of the troopers on their own reached into their pockets and gave two to three hundred dollars. They purchased books for kids that could not purchase books.
During the question and answer part of the meeting, the question was asked, ” Any agency with a presence in our community should something happen, do they have the freedom to act independently? They don’t need to ask who is in charge?” Tellez answered, “No”. Tellez went on to say if Uvalde (Police) comes across something they can take care of it, but we’re going to work together.
Tellez also mentioned that before May 24th, the different law enforcement agencies could not communicate between departments, but since May 24th, a system has been put in place where different agencies can communicate with one another.
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