First of a Two Part Follow-up Report

The inability to get state-mandated training led to a number of intoxicated motorists being charged with public intoxication in Arcola, not a lack of willingness on the part of police officers, that city’s police chief has explained.

In a lengthy interview with FortBendNow, Arcola Police Chief James Bartley said some intoxicated drivers had to be charged with public intoxication instead of DWI because Arcola police officers have been unable to get state-mandated training in conducting the Standard Field Sobriety Test, or SFST.

That course is now required before an officer can charge a driver with DWI. Bartley noted that District Attorney John F. Healy recently sent a letter to all law enforcement agencies in Fort Bend County telling them that the DA’s Office will not prosecute a DWI case without the SFST being conducted.

“It’s absolutely not the case that (Arcola Police) are letting drunk drivers go; we simply have not been able to find training courses for our officers to conduct the SFST,” Bartley said. “Our officers want the training; it’s just that there have been no courses being offered locally.”

Bartley went on to say that he has contacted all area police academies in an effort to obtain the training for his officers.

“They say they need a minimum of 10 (officers) to put on the course and none have been able to get that many to enroll,” Bartley explained.

He also dismissed the allegation that Arcola officers were charging drunk drivers with public intoxication so the city could benefit from the fine revenue.

“Absolutely not,” Bartley said. “That’s not even anything we consider. Every officer on my staff is a professional officer.”

He also pointed out that his department currently has five DWI cases pending in the county court system. That, Bartley pointed out, is an impressive number of DWI cases for a small police department.

“We are filing DWI cases,” Bartley said.

The Arcola Police Department currently has six paid and four reserve officers on staff. Bartley said “about half” currently need the SFST training course. Typically, the department has only one officer working per shift.

The training need has also been aggravated by the department’s high turnover rate. Bartley pointed to the case of two officers he sent to the Texas Department of Public Safety Academy in Austin to receive the SFST training about a year ago.

He said the city spend “around $1000” for the officers’ training, meals and lodging. After completing the training, both officers moved on to larger departments.

Bartley also noted that even when an officer who is not SFST certified stops a potentially intoxicated driver, charging that person with public intoxication is still not the department’s first course of action. They instead call for a state trooper to administer the test and take the arrest.

Troopers are not always available, however, leaving the Arcola officer who no choice other than to charge the driver with being intoxicated. Even when that occurs, Bartley explained, the driver is not simply given a citation and allowed to drive off.

“In every case, the person is taken into custody and the car is towed,” Bartley said. “At no time do we allow the public’s safety to be jeopardized.”

Bartley showed “tow slips,” documents outlining the towing of vehicles, for all of the cases cited by FortBendNow.

Bartley also noted that prosecutors require that a police officer witness a person driving to charge them with DWI. That was the case in a hit-and-run case in which an intoxicated driver, Charles Steven Ostendorf, struck the rear of a car in Arcola and fled. Ostendorf was apprehended a short distance away by Missouri City Police after his vehicle broke down.

“In this case, no police officer ever actually saw him driving,” Bartley said.

Prosecutors will not accept the statement of a non-police witness to put a suspected DWI offender behind the wheel, Bartley pointed out.

Still to Come: Police Chief Says Some in City Undermining Police Department