East Texas

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

TROUP — Pat Hendrix sits in his office at Troup Police Department looking to the future. He does not speak badly of the previous administration, but his administration’s accomplishments show a huge difference from what took place two years ago.

He has implemented programs and crime numbers have dropped with his tough stance on crime.

“Troup has come a long way and with all the houses going up in the area, the businesses moving in, Troup is now a place people want to live,” he said.

Hendrix wants people to know that he has had a lot of help from other law enforcement agencies, city officials and the public.

Hendrix was hired following the arrests of former Chief Chester Kennedy and his top officer, Samuel “Mark” Turner on charges of tampering with physical evidence.

The arrests came after years of complaints from citizens and a lengthy investigation by the FBI and Smith County Sheriff’s Office. Both Kennedy and Turner were convicted and are in prison.

Hendrix said he continues to earn the trust of citizens who were let down by the previous administration.

Shortly after the arrests of the former chief and Turner, citizens began calling the media and Smith County District Attorney’s office to report crimes that were filed but never solved.

Those included sexual assault cases in which evidence was not handled properly and ruined. The district attorney’s office had said that under Kennedy the department only filed 300 cases in six years and the DA believed that number reflected the attitude of the office to look the other way.

Turner was also charged with selling marijuana, which he took from the police evidence locker, to an undercover informant.

A look at numbers Hendrix and his team compiled since taking over in 2006 show 207 cases filed with the DA’s office, 2,660 traffic citations written, 2,935 traffic warnings given, 429 arrests made, 35 city code violations issued and 18 vehicles tagged and towed.

Hendrix has implemented use of inmate labor on city projects, a canine officer and handler, a school resource officer to work cases at the schools, drug programs with low-priced drug testing kits for parents who believe their child may be doing illegal narcotics and other programs, such as Ident-A-Kid.

Hendrix said his officers make a lot of stops for traffic violations or things like expired motor vehicle registrations and that gives them a chance to make arrests for those wanted on warrants and or who may be transporting illegal drugs.

The chief believes that by communicating with citizens and continuing that partnership, the city can become a safer place.

“Drug dealers are like cock roaches. In the dark they thrive, but when you turn the light on they scatter and I truly believe that most property crime is related to drug activity. With the citizen’s help we can make this a better place to live,” he said. “I’m not saying I believe we can have a city where crime doesn’t happen, but I am saying that I believe we can make it even better.”

Troup Police Chief Pat Hendrix
(Staff photo by Jaime R. Carrero)