Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Lufkin Police promote three officers; chief delivers annual report showing rising calls
Summary
The Lufkin City Council recognized three promotions in the police department and heard an annual report from Chief Thomas detailing increases in calls for service, arrests and traffic enforcement in 2024.
The Lufkin City Council on Monday recognized promotions within the Lufkin Police Department and received the department’s annual report for 2024, which showed an increase in calls for service and other activity compared with 2023.
Chief Thomas told the council he was honoring the promotion of Corporal Dalton Estes to sergeant, Detective Carter William Willman to corporal (assigned to investigations) and Officer Roger Bridal to the Investigations Division. "The promotional system in the department ... is designed to determine the best leaders for the future of our department," Chief Thomas said, summarizing the department’s testing and assessment process.
The chief presented department statistics for 2024: nearly 42,000 calls for service (up from about 38,000 in 2023), about 1,300 arrests (mostly drug-related), roughly 6,000 traffic stops, 194,000 nonemergency phone calls answered by dispatch and about 300,000 radio transmissions. Chief Thomas said officers answered a priority call about every five minutes and a 911 call about every 18 minutes, and that the department’s response time to emergency calls averaged about seven minutes. "Our goal for 2025 is to maintain the public trust, community support, as well as support from city management council," he said.
A council member presented Chief Thomas with a commendation and praised his work and patience with city staff. No formal action was required for the presentation or the report.
The council also presented challenge coins and badges during the promotion ceremony and thanked the officers for their service. The presentation preceded the council’s business agenda and did not include binding policy changes or budget motions.
Because the report was informational, the council did not vote on its contents; Chief Thomas invited council members to follow up with questions later.
