Steve McCraw and the Agency’s History

In the nearly 90-year history of the Texas Police Department (DPS), many of its 12 chiefs have been influenced by politics and occasional blunders.

Col. Steve McCraw is stepping down as head of the Texas Department of Public Safety amid political controversy and cries that his agency has failed in one of its core duties, but his departure is not an exception for the highest-ranking officer in the nearly 90-year history of the state’s leading law enforcement agency.

Though that may have been the case, he did so on his own terms, with the governor’s effusive praise ringing in his ears.

McCraw, who began his DPS career as a highway patrolman in 1977 and also served as a special agent in the FBI, is only the 12th director since the agency was created amid the Depression-era crime surge and political unrest in 1935. He also has the second-longest tenure as director of the agency, which has grown to 11,700 employees and a $2.3 billion budget for a two-year spending cycle beginning Sept. 1, 2023.

McCraw announced his decision to resign the same day DPS welcomed its new class of cadets in a tradition-filled ceremony Aug. 23, without mentioning pressure from the families of some of the 19 children and two adults killed in the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde — and a failed law enforcement response — to resign. It also ignored sharp criticism from the community’s state senator, Democrat Rolando Gutierrez, who called McCraw “the mastermind behind the Uvalde cover-up.”

Instead, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, the keynote speaker at the ceremony, hailed McCraw as “a leader, a visionary and the quintessential law enforcement officer for whom Texas is known.”

Taking over a troublesome DPS

When McCraw took over DPS in July 2009, he took command of what had long been considered one of the nation’s most elite law enforcement operations, but it was adrift. His predecessor, 36-year DPS veteran Stanley Clark, had been in charge for just nine months when he abruptly resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment that included blowing kisses, touching and kissing female employees without invitation.

Instead of effusive praise for Clark’s decades of service, the chairman of the appointed committee overseeing DPS said he was “disappointed in this case.”

“This is an elite law enforcement agency,” said Allan Polunksy, who was then chairman of the Texas Public Safety Commission. “We expect all of our employees to demonstrate the highest level of professionalism. The director must set an example for all employees in terms of workplace communication.”

Ironically, Clark was promoted to the position in part to sweep cobwebs from the hallways of DPS. Clark replaces Thomas Davis, another director who rose through the ranks and resigned after eight years in the job amid intense criticism for the agency’s inability to make an arrest in a late-night June 2008 arson that nearly destroyed the governor’s mansion. Only one officer was assigned to patrol the downtown Austin landmark that night. The arson remains unsolved 16 years later.

A subsequent review of the legislation found that DPS was operating with an outdated computer system and was not adequately prepared to respond to, much less prevent, terrorist acts within the state.

Texas Rangers and the “chair spinner”

Sam Houston State University professor Mitchel Roth, who wrote “Courtesy, Service, and Protection: The History of the Texas Department of Public Safety,” said politics and controversy have gone hand in hand since the idea of merging the elite and storied Texas Rangers with the state Highway Patrol was first floated during the last term of Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson in the early 1930s.

More: Texas Ranger Supposed to Be Fired After Uvalde School Shooting, Instead He Was Reinstated

“You want to remember that in the 1930s, Texas and everywhere else had a very high crime rate. A lot of veteran Texas Rangers were fired by Ma Ferguson,” Roth said in an interview. “And so there were a lot of political appointees, and maybe not the best of the best.”

The new agency was created in a bill signed by Ferguson’s successor, Gov. James Allred, and the merger was not without grumbling within the ranks.

A December 2, 1935, United Press report asked whether the Texas Rangers had “gone soft” after the legendary unit merged with the Highway Patrol.

“Now they’re bundled into the Texas Department of Public Safety, a high-tech outfit with radios, fingerprint experts and machine guns,” UP correspondent Robert Wear reported. “The public safety commission is trying to match the guards to the situation.”

The article lamented the firing of Rangers captain Thomas Hickman, who had become a Texas legend for bringing order to oil towns and for catching a bank robber who, dressed as Santa Claus, held up a bank in the town of Cisco, near Abilene, on Christmas Eve in 1927. The robbery sparked an eight-day manhunt that ended in a shootout in which Cisco Police Chief George Emory Bedford was killed.

According to the story, Hickman didn’t “fit” the mold that Albert Sidney Johnston, the first chairman of the new Public Safety Commission, had envisioned for the fledgling law enforcement agency. Hickman’s allies and supporters of the traditional Texas Rangers dismissed the newly christened DPS as “a bunch of swivel-chair Johnnies.”

Just five months after the UP article was published, the first DPS chief, LG Phares, was forced to resign after less than a year in office due to “a series of political disputes with DPS commissioners,” according to a brief description on the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum website.

How McCraw Became Part of Abbott’s Political Optics

McCraw, whose 15 years as Texas’ top law enforcement official are second only to Col. Homer Garrison’s 30-year run that ended with his death in 1968, raised the profile of his office far beyond that of his recent predecessors. Before and after the Uvalde shooting and amid the aftermath and subsequent finger-pointing, McCraw, in his gray fatigues and cream cowboy hat, was a ubiquitous presence at Abbott’s side in nearly every state of emergency.

Since the launch of Operation Lone Star, Abbott’s multibillion-dollar response to illegal border crossings, McCraw has helped provide some of the political optics in the governor’s high-profile fight with the Democratic Biden administration over immigration. Few photo opportunities with Abbott and the array of military and DPS equipment along the banks of the Rio Grande have come and gone without McCraw’s image on news cameras and his nonsensical sound bites to reinforce Abbott’s message.

When asked about his accomplishments in the job, McCraw was quick to respond that he was serving “at the will of the governor,” and even when announcing his intention to retire at the end of the year, he noted that “Abbott will make sure my successor is as good as, and probably better than, me.”

Both observations are technically incorrect, but in practice perhaps true.

The Texas Government Code section on DPS authorizes the Public Safety Commission to hire or fire the department’s director. The statute does not give the governor any authority in the matter, but it does make clear that the governor appoints five members of the commission to six-year terms.

More: Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw Testifies Before Grand Jury in Uvalde School Shooting Case

“The Governor may assume command and direct the actions of the commission and department during a public emergency, riot, insurrection, or dangerous resistance to the enforcement of the law, or to fulfill the Governor’s constitutional duty to enforce the law,” the bill reads. “The Governor may use Texas Highway Patrol personnel only when other department personnel are unable to cope with the emergency.”

Roth, the Sam Houston State professor, said that because Abbott has been in office for 10 years and has appointed all of the five-member commission, it is likely the board will choose a successor who is acceptable to the governor.

The commission has not yet announced the process for selecting the next DPS leader or what qualities a successful candidate must have. Roth described McCraw’s immediate predecessors as “fairly bland bureaucrats” compared to the almost larger-than-life figure McCraw has become, especially in the past few years.

“We know more about McCraw because of social media and the recent heavy media coverage of everything,” Roth said. “I mean, 10, 20 years ago, you might not have recognized (the DPS director’s) name. But now, with what happened in Uvalde and what’s happening at the border, he’s become the face of a lot of these events.”

Steve McCraw and the Agency’s History

In the nearly 90-year history of the Texas Police Department (DPS), many of its 12 chiefs have been influenced by politics and occasional blunders.

Taking over a troublesome DPS

Texas Rangers and the “chair spinner”

How McCraw Became Part of Abbott’s Political Optics

By meerna

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Steve McCraw and the Agency’s History

In the nearly 90-year history of the Texas Police Department (DPS), many of its 12 chiefs have been influenced by politics and occasional blunders.

Taking over a troublesome DPS

Texas Rangers and the “chair spinner”

How McCraw Became Part of Abbott’s Political Optics

By meerna

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