TRINIDAD and ATHENS-The fallout from a water-quality controversy in Trinidad that got the attention of the Texas Rangers has now led to a state agency revoking the authority of the town’s police department to appoint peace officer licensees, effectively ending city-sponsored law enforcement as of Sept. 18.
That information was contained in a Sept. 9 letter from Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Executive Director Gregory Stevens to Trinidad Mayor Dennis Haws, the contents of which The Monitor quotes with the mayor’s permission.
Revoking that authority means the City of Trinidad will no longer be able to commission and hold peace officers’ licenses, said Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse, who told The Monitor Sept. 14 that his office is “ready for the long haul to be their main responder.”
Hillhouse said the 2027 budget adopted by the Henderson County Commissioners’ Court includes funding to cover law enforcement in Trinidad, as well as in Seven Points, another Henderson County city that lacks local law enforcement after its own police department was disbanded July 1. That funding does not start until early next year, the sheriff said.
According to the TCOLE letter, the agency’s mission “is to establish and enforce standards to ensure that the people of Texas are served by highly trained and ethical law enforcement, corrections, and telecommunications personnel.”
The letter says that Aug. 5, TCOLE investigators conducted a law enforcement agency inspection in Trinidad pursuant to state laws about minimum standards for law enforcement agencies and “establishment or continued operation of an appointing entity.”
The letter continues, “Based on the inspection team's findings, the Trinidad Police Department failed to meet minimum standards.”
Trinidad Police Department “was unable to produce evidence” that it “provides public benefit to the community,” according to the TCOLE letter. Criticisms by the state agency include Trinidad police lacking physical resources for officers, such as at least one bullet-resistant vest per officer on duty and not having an evidence room “or other acceptable secure evidence storage.”
The letter also says Trinidad PD did not have policies on use of force, vehicle pursuits and professional conduct of officers, lacked domestic abuse protocols, had no response plan about missing persons, failed to supervise part-time officers and that it had no policy about “impartial policing.”
TCOLE alleges that Trinidad PD failed to prove the department undertook medical and psychological examination of peace officer licensees. The agency also pointed out other policy problems such as dealing with active shooters and barricaded subjects, no evidence collection and handling rules, no guidelines about eyewitness identification and misconduct investigations and had no rules about hiring a license holder.
The agency also found issues about personnel files, that the police department had no dress code and that the department had no policies related to training required to maintain licensure and outside and off-duty employment.
The letter concludes “all TCOLE licensees appointed by the Trinidad Police Department must be separated from the agency by September 18, 2026.” The department’s most recent permanent police chief, Charles Gregory, resigned his position June 18, soon after two arrests by Trinidad PD while the town’s water woes began to play out. Both of the people arrested have filed civil rights lawsuits against the city, the department and associated personnel. 
The letter also advises the city that “this revocation does not absolve the city of certain responsibilities,” which TCOLE states involve the retention of all personnel records associated with the police department for at least five years and that those records “must be shared with other law enforcement agencies which might consider hiring those same licensees during that period.”
Furthermore, TCOLE says Trinidad PD’s motor vehicle stop data for calendar year 2026 “must be reported.” In addition, the letter says “(i)f there are unresolved allegations of misconduct against any Trinidad Police Department licensees, those complaints must be investigated, resolved, documented, and reported to TCOLE within 30 days of that licensee's separation from the agency.”
TCOLE is prepared to assist the City of Trinidad “with methods to simplify and support these continuing responsibilities,” according to the letter from Austin. Those actions include assisting the city “with instruction on any necessary separation and notification of appointed officers, early reporting of traffic stop data, guidance on the process and policy for misconduct investigations and reporting, and how to upload personnel files to reduce the number of inquiries the city is obligated to respond to over the next several years.”
That’s where Sheriff Hillhouse steps in. He reported that he’s had conversations with the City of Trinidad and has coordinated with Henderson County District Attorney Jenny Palmer and Henderson County Attorney Kenneth Strawn, who jointly announced in an Aug. 10 letter to Trinidad police that they would no longer accept criminal cases brought to them that solely involved Trinidad officers. The county’s top prosecutors also said in the letter that the sheriff’s office would start patrolling the city and informed Trinidad that the officials had requested the TCOLE audit.
“I assured the DA and the county attorney that we would answer all calls for service there, so we've been doing that for a couple of months now,” Hillhouse said.
To evaluate the sheriff’s office ability to take on the duties of the as-of-now extinct Trinidad Police Department, Hillhouse recounted that TCOLE came to his Athens office in early September for an audit, a test which the sheriff says his department passed the same day.
“I'm hoping to be able to enter into an agreement with the City of Trinidad,” Hillhouse commented. “I did speak to Trinidad ISD this morning (Sept. 14). The City of Trinidad also provides a school resource officer to Trinidad ISD, so that program is going to have to stop because there's going to no longer be a police department.”
The sheriff continued, “I'm trying to work with the school to see if we can help them … That's just going to be up to the ISD and the city at this point now. If they decide not to do anything, I'm still going to do everything we need to do to make sure the citizens are taken care of.”
Trinidad PD joins the list of Henderson County police force deactivations, comprised of the Seven Points Police Department, which was shuttered July 1, as well as the disbanding of Coffee City’s municipal police presence in 2023.
“We’ll have as many patrols done as we can in the city,” the sheriff assured Trinidad residents, “and there's going to be a law enforcement presence.”