Produced by DPS Public Information, (512) 424-2080 September 2002

DPS online: www.txdps.state.tx.us DPS “on the air”: 512-424-7777 askthecolonel@txdps.state.tx.us

Texas Amber Alert plannedDPS will participate in the Texas Amber Alert Plan, a voluntary

effort that will alert Texas citizens when a child has been abducted intheir area.

The Governor’s program, which will provide statewide cover-age for the first time, is a cooperative effort between DPS, the TexasDepartment of Transportation, and the Texas Association of Broad-casters.

While some exact details were still being developed at presstime, here’s an overview of how it will work:

When a child is reported as abducted to a local law enforce-ment agency, the agency will quickly evaluate the case to determinewhether activating the Amber Alert is appropriate. The alert will beissued if the case meets the following requirements:

· The abducted child is 17 or younger.· The child has been abducted or unwillingly taken from their

environment without permission from the child’s parent or legal guard-ian.

Several construction projects of note are completed or plannedacross the state.

· The new Houston Regional Office is now open for business.At more than 75,000 square feet, it is twice the size of the old build-ing. The land and infrastructure cost about $12 million, which in-cludes a fleet maintenance shop, a radio repair shop and a helicop-ter hanger and landing pad. All services are represented in the newfacility, located at 290 and West Road in northwest Houston. Thefreestanding public DL office at the previous location remains inoperation, and the old building (more than 30 years old) is beingtransferred to Pardons and Paroles.

DPS construction projects taking shape

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Dear Fellow Employee,More than a hundred of our co-

workers retired in August, includingtwo division chiefs, Charlie Grahamof Traffic Law Enforcement andMike Anderson of Driver License.To all of those who are retiring, Iwould say this: Thank you for whatyou’ve done on behalf of our agencyand for the state of Texas. You shouldbe proud of your long career in pub-lic service. You will definitely bemissed. Enjoy retirement—you’veearned it!

Some of those folks will be return-ing to DPS after 30 days, but we aredefinitely losing a tremendous amountof experience. At the same time, theseretirements are creating tremendousopportunities for advancement. Goodluck to those of you looking to moveup.

About two months after leaving,retirees will start receiving the news-letter at their home address. If not,give PIO a call.

Work continues on the Anniver-sary Book, which is in the final proof-ing and approval stages. Look fordelivery of the book before the endof this year. Thanks for your patience.

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DPS online: www.txdps.state.tx.us DPS “on the air”: 512-424-7777 askthecolonel@txdps.state.tx.us

Awards

Short Shots

Jim Boynton was awarded aDirector’s Award for his bravery inrescuing the victim of a fiery one-vehicle crash. On June 2, Boynton,an Austin Fire Department captain,was traveling in Burnet County whenhe spotted a wrecked vehicle thathad caught on fire. He found thedriver unconscious and surroundedby flames and smoke. Boyntonpulled the victim to safety just be-fore the gas tank ignited and thepickup was totally engulfed in flames.He was nominated by Tr. RossBehrens, HP Marble Falls.

The Woodway Police Depart-ment was awarded a Director’sAward for their actions May 2, whenlaw officers were ambushed duringan auto theft search investigation inHamilton County. The shooting in-cident resulted in the death of a Lime-stone County Sheriff’s deputy andthe wounding of two other law en-forcement officers, including Tr.James Jones, HP Goldthwaite.Woodway PD provided a SWATteam and armored vehicle and as-sisted in the rescue of the injured of-ficers during the standoff. The sus-pect eventually killed himself. Thenomination was submitted by Capt.Charles Smith, HP Austin.

· Law enforcement believes thechild is in danger of serious bodilyharm or death.

· Law enforcement must confirman investigation has taken place thatverifies the abduction and has ruledout alternative explanations for themissing child.

· There is enough descriptive in-formation about the child, the abduc-tor or the suspect’s vehicle to makea broadcast alert to the public help-ful.

Local law enforcement agenciesactivate the plan by notifying DPS.Television and radio stations willbroadcast the alert within a 200-mileradius of the kidnapping.

DPS will notify TxDOT to flashmessages on electronic highway signsin the appropriate area warning mo-torists to watch for the suspect’s ve-hicle.

In addition, DPS will send outTLETS messages and other notifi-cations on a regional or statewidebasis, depending on the circum-stances.

Time is a critical element for suc-cess. Statistics show that 74 percentof children murdered by non-familymembers are killed within the firstthree hours of the abduction.

Amber Alert,continued from page 1

Sick Leave Pool informationThe Sick Leave Pool continues

to benefit employees of the Depart-ment who have experienced the ad-versity of catastrophic illness or in-jury and have exhausted all accruedentitlements. Employees are again

asked to contribute to this worthwhilecause. Donations are accepted at anytime and will be good for a period ofone year from date of donation. Do-nations must be received prior to thediscovery of the need for leave.

For additional information refer tothe General Manual, Chapter 7, Sec-tion 06.04. Enclosed in your Septem-ber paychecks you will find a HR-36, Sick Leave Pool donation form.If you wish to contribute, please sendthe completed form to the Human Re-sources Bureau, attention Sick LeavePool Administrator, PO Box 4087,Austin, Texas 78773-0251.

The HR-36 form can also befound in Outlook under Public Fold-ers, All Public Folders, DPS Forms,HR Forms. You may e-mail this formto Cindy Torres in HR.

Former SES trooper honoredFormer SES Tr. J.D. “Chick”

West of Corpus Christi was in-ducted into the Uniformed SafetyEducation Officers Workshop Hall ofFame during the annual meeting inJune. He is the first Texan ever in-ducted into the Hall of Fame.

Help wantedThe State Employee Charitable

Campaign (SECC)—the annualfund-raiser for charitable organiza-tions—kicks off September 1 andruns through October 31. Contribu-tions are tax deductible.

Please consider giving even alittle. Last year, DPSers generouslydonated $65,000. For more infor-mation, contact DPS statewide co-ordinator Beth Warren, 512-424-5639, or your local SECC coordi-nator.

Mile Markers

Best wishes for a speedy recov-ery from line-of-duty injuries goto:

Tr. James David Jones,HP Goldthwaite

On themend...

PromotionsCLE

Guy Marshall Caskey, Asst.Chief, CLE Austin to Chief, CLEAustin; Gary Ray Stone, Asst.Comm., MVT Austin to Major,CLE Austin; James WalterBrubaker, Asst. Comm., Narcot-ics Svc. San Antonio to DeputyComm., Narcotics Svc. Austin; DanAlan Easterwood, Capt., Narcot-ics Svc. Mount Pleasant to Asst.Comm., Narcotics Svc., Garland;Jesus Torres Flores, Lt., MVTAustin to Capt., MVT Austin; JohnCharles Vigil, Sgt., MVT CorpusChristi to Lt., MVT Austin; PatrickWayne Poerner, Sgt., SpecialCrimes New Braunfels to Lt., Spe-cial Crimes Corpus Christi.

Director’s StaffBilly Maurice Fulton, Lt., Spe-

cial Crimes San Antonio to Insp. II,OAI Austin.

AdministrationJackie Wayne Colley, Asst.

State Coord., EMS Austin to StateCoord., EMS Austin; Victor SidneyTaylor, Sgt., HP Richmond to Lt.,Training Austin.

TLELambert Adams Cantu, Lt.,

L&W El Paso to Capt., L&WLaredo; Barry Means Detlefsen,Sgt., L&W Georgetown to Lt.,Motor Carrier Austin; JamesSpencer, Sgt., L&W Garland to Lt.L&W Garland; BaldemarSandoval, Sgt., L&W Baytown toLt., L&W McAllen; Kenneth Boyd

West, Jr., Sgt., L&W Abilene to Lt.,L&W Lubbock; Bryan Rippee, Tr.II, HP Midland to Sgt., HP FortStockton; Sonya Y. Harrell, Supv.,Comm. Svc. Midland to RegionalSupv., Comm. Svc Waco; BonnieGail Fisher, Operator IV, Comm.Svc. Garland to Supv., Comm. Svc.Bryan.

RetirementsJames Larry Henry, Capt.,

L&W Lubbock, 35 yrs., 21 days;Randal Lee Messick, Capt., MVTAustin, 32 yrs., 17 days; BradfordLee Crook, Tr. V, HP Waco, 30yrs., 1 mo., 4 days; NatalieGaitan, DL Tech, DLD SanMarcos, 29 yrs., 9 mos., 15 days;Virginia Ruth Meyer, Crime Ana-lyst, Special Crimes, 29 yrs., 7 mos.,19 days; Albert Gerald Corbell,Jr., Tr. V, HP Center, 28 yrs., 5mos., 26 days; Charlie John Mor-gan, Cpl. V, SES Waco, 20 yrs., 4mos., 22 days; Homer Lee Nolan,Operator IV, Comm. Svc. Garland,17 yrs., 9 mos., 19 days; FaustinoC. Sanchez, DL Examiner, DLDCopperas Cove, 10 yrs., 19 days;Dudley Carl Rains, Tr. V, L&WGoliad, 25 yrs., 4 mos., 2 days;James Gale Haley, Cpl. V, L&WCanyon, 34 yrs., 3 mos.; ThomasRichard Kidd, Tr. V, L&W KarnesCity, 32 yrs., 5 mos., 21 days; JohnF. Willingham, Jr., Tr. V, L&WTemple, 29 yrs., 8 mos., 3 days;Donald Edward Stewart, Tr. V,L&W Denton, 29 yrs., 1 mo., 5days; Darrell Cecil Matthews, Tr.V, L&W Hereford, 28 yrs., 10 mos.,6 days; Jimmy Vastle Toles, Tr. V,L&W Greenville, 26 yrs., 9 mos., 3days; John Clifford Reed, Jr., Tr.

V, L&W Queen City, 23 yrs., 1 mo.,19 days; Gary Eldo Johnson, Tr.V, HP Aspermont, 21 yrs., 1 mo.,22 days; Larry Chris Duncan, Tr.V, HP Henrietta, 19 yrs., 3 mos., 26days; Betty Lou Montgomery,Clerical Supv., Training Austin, 17yrs., 1 mo., 15 days; Petra D.Macias, DL Tech., DLD CorpusChristi, 12 yrs., 5 mos; Diane CoxMartin, Criminalist V, Breath Alco-hol Tyler, 11 yrs., 9 mos., 17 days;Jimmy Orlando Nail, Jr., Tr. IV,HP El Paso, 20 yrs., 1 day; GlennRay Unnasch, Supv. Criminalist II,Crime Lab Austin, 30 yrs., 9 mos.,14 days; Glenn Howard Harrison,Supv. Criminalist II, Crime Lab Aus-tin, 30 yrs., 2 mos., 21 days;Cornell Anthony Evans, Tr. V, HPHouston, 24 yrs., 6 mos., 24 days;Ben Irene Frederick, Secr., Inter-nal Affairs Austin, 16 yrs., 2 mos.,24 days; Virginia S. Monson, ALR,DIB Austin, 12 yrs., 18 days.

DeathsLouie Maurice Bozeman, ret.

Sgt., DL Wichita Falls (March 1949-Aug. 1985) died August 12, 2002;John Ted Hood, ret. Sgt., HPDumas (Jan. 1957-Sept. 1993) diedAugust 11, 2002; R. B. Babbitt, ret.Supervisor, Police Comm. Ozona(Feb. 1962-June 1995) died July 18,2002.

Sister of first Highway Patrolman to die in the line of dutyreturns yearly for DPS Memorial Service

Arthur Fischer, the first StateHighway Patrol officer to die in theline of duty, lives on in his sister’smemory. Patrolman Fischer’s sister,Leatha Svadlenak, has attended theDPS Peace Officer Memorial Ser-vice at DPS Headquarters everyyear for the past eight years.

Retired HP Capt. Bob Martin,now with the Fort Bend Sheriffs De-partment, drives her from Houstonto the service each year. “I enjoytravelling to the memorial service withMs. Svadlenak,” he said, “and wejust keep going.”

Ms. Svadlenak attends the me-morial service not only to rememberArthur, but also because she admiresDPS and enjoys being with thetroopers.

“The troopers always go out oftheir way to be polite to me,” said

Svadlenak. “Plus, I admire the wholeDepartment and how they go aboveand beyond their duty. There’s onlyone word to describe them—they’regreat!”

Ms. Svadlenak also said that shehas come to know other families whohave lost loved ones in the line ofduty, and she enjoys seeing themeach year.

Highway Patrolman ArthurFischer was killed on the night ofJanuary 18, 1932—his 25th birth-day—when the motorcycle he wasriding hit a horse near Carmine. Hehad just graduated from trainingschool October 14 the year beforeand was stationed in Brenham.

Ms. Svadlenak said she hasnever forgotten how much herbrother loved the Department andhow happy he was when he gradu-

ated. “The day he graduated fromDPS, he was the happiest man tohave completed his exams and be-come a trooper,” she said. “We allcelebrated with a big dinner andthen sat on the front porch of our farmhouse and watched him target prac-tice. He was an excellent marksman.”

Arthur Fischer was the first State HighwayPatrol officer to die in the line of duty.

· The Florence Firing RangeComplex, located near Austin, is cur-rently out for bids and could beawarded this month.

· New area offices have beenconstructed in McKinney, Terrell andEastland in the last year.

· The new Communications of-fice is now up and running in Conroeon a limited basis. As staffing isadded, it will become a 24-hour ra-dio center covering Montgomery,Walker, Grimes and Waller counties.

More on other constructionprojects next issue.

Construction projects moving along, continued from page 1

Houston Regional Office employees are enjoying extra elbow room at the newbuilding on Highway 290.