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Glenn Heights police chief tells CPAC department will record offense reports regardless of prosecution intent
Summary
The police chief told CPAC that, effective March 2025, officers will take offense reports for any criminal act in Glenn Heights regardless of victims’ desire to pursue charges; the chief said gaps between policy and practice were addressed, and an employee was terminated after an outside investigation and an audio recording contradicted a report.
At a Citizens Police Advisory Committee meeting, the police chief said department policy and practice around domestic-violence reporting were reexamined after shortcomings in how a complaint was handled.
"From March 2025 going forward, anytime a criminal act occurs in the city of Glenn Heights, we will take an offense report, irregardless to the desire, of prosecution," the chief said. He acknowledged prior gaps between written policy and what officers did in practice and said those gaps contributed to the mishandling of the complainant’s case.
The chief told CPAC that an outside agency conducted the initial review of the Elias/Womack matter, that he reviewed a recording which contradicted the report, and that the recording contributed to the termination of the employee involved. The chief said disciplinary findings were included in CPAC members’ packets to demonstrate transparency.
Committee members asked for statistics on domestic-violence responses over the past one to two years; the chief agreed to provide those numbers to CPAC. Members also pressed for confirmation that complainants receive timely updates; the chief said investigators (not the chief directly) typically manage complainant communications, though complainants may contact the chief by email.
