During the last five years, just under 100 complaints have been filed against Odessa police officers, resulting in two terminations and roughly 25 other disciplinary actions. In one third of the cases evidence existed that fully exonerated the officers, OPD records show.
Although there are times when the department “falls down,” Chief Mike Gerke said his department is full of a lot of great officers.
“I think we’ve proven over the years that when we do have issues that we deal with those issues, we don’t try to cover them up and we don’t say ‘That didn’t happen.’ We say we’ve had an issue and this is how we dealt with it,” Gerke said.
Records obtained by the Odessa American under the Texas Public Information Act indicate the types of complaints filed against OPD officers during the last five years are varied. Some involve allegations about use of force and false arrests, others allege officers violated the law, were disrespectful or untruthful, engaged in racial profiling, didn’t properly document events or live up to the department’s standards.
An officer fired in 2017 was found to be a habitually reckless driver who violated traffic laws after a citizen reported him for unsafe driving, Gerke said. Another officer was fired in 2020 for including false information in an official record following a DWI arrest and for the way he behaved in a property crime case. The officer “was rude and insensitive to the situation, brash with his decisions and treated the victim poorly,” the chief said.
When complaints are filed against officers, the department’s Professional Standards unit, which is comprised of a lieutenant and two sergeants, investigates, Gerke said. At the end of the investigation, the complaints are classified as “unfounded” or “sustained” or “unsustained.” Officers can also be “exonerated.”
Officers are exonerated when they were involved in an event, but “we can absolutely prove that what was alleged did not happen. It’s not just he said, she said. We can absolutely tell you that that was a false allegation. Absolutely. 1,000%,” Gerke said, adding that many times body cameras have aided in making that determination.
When complaints are deemed “unfounded” it not only means the officer didn’t break any rules, but that the event itself never happened, Gerke said.
For example, within the last year someone alleged an officer used excessive force but he was in Albuquerque at the time of the alleged incident, he said.
When complaints are “unsustained,” Professional Standards has determined that the officer’s version of events is more credible than the complainant’s by a “preponderance of the evidence,” the chief said.
When it comes to disciplinary action, Gerke said he takes into consideration whether the actions were “mistakes of the heart or mistakes of the mind.”
“A mistake of the mind is maybe we didn’t do so well with training, and maybe you didn’t understand what you did was wrong, was incorrect. So what we’re going to do is retrain you, that’s our fault. We’ll take that hiccup, that’s on us. You need to be retrained, you need to be resupervised. We need to tell you what’s wrong. Now those we can live with. The ones that become hard to live with are the ones that are mistakes of the heart. Where you know what you’re doing is wrong and you decide to do it anyway,” Gerke said.
From 2017-2021, records show eight officers received counseling and three received written reprimands. Two officers were both counseled and received written reprimands. Four officers received eight-hour suspensions and one of those received additional training. Nine officers were verbally reprimanded. Another officer would have received a written reprimand but resigned during the investigation and went to work for another department, Gerke said.
During the same time period, 63 commendations were placed in officers’ files, some reflecting good deeds recognized by superior officers and others by residents, Gerke said. He noted officers are frequently applauded for their actions, but not every letter is placed in an officer’s file.
Any time a new academy begins, Gerke said he makes it a point to talk to the recruits about the department’s mission and his expectations.
“Number one, a police department exists, law enforcement agencies exist, to make the lives of the citizens that it serves better. That’s the purpose. Number two, we don’t care if you are black, brown, white, green, purple, polka dotted, it’s about the work… We don’t care if you’re gay or straight. We don’t care. None of that stuff matters. For our employees, it should be about the work and the citizens that we serve. It should be about serving that citizen.”
The chief stressed that it’s not just about whether an officer’s actions were legal, it’s about whether they were right and they always look at whether there were better ways to handle situations.
“Now we fall down sometimes. I watch videos and if the customer service is not so great we try to address that,” Gerke said. “Does that always mean a written reprimand or suspension? No, sometimes that’s a ‘Come in the office and let’s have a talk about this’ and fix it. The other thing that we harp on is we’re not a numbers driven department. It’s not about the number of arrests. It’s not about the number of tickets that we write. The main number that we care about are the crime stats at the end of the year, particularly serious crimes, have those gone down?”
Chances are someone pulled over for a broken tail light isn’t going to get a ticket the first time because they likely didn’t know it was broken, but they will probably get one if they’re pulled over a third or fourth time, the chief said.
”The purpose of a citation is not to generate funds for the city. The purpose of that citation is to get compliance with the law, right? It’s about safety and that sort of thing,” Gerke said.
Overall, Gerke said he believes the department enjoys the full support of the community. People often bring officers goodies around the holidays, donate funds and overwhelmingly support events like the Bustin’ for Badges Clay Shoot Fundraiser, which raised $105,000 last year for the OPD, Ector County Sheriff’s Office, Midland Police Department and the Midland County Sheriff’s Office.
“I think we try to be a police department for everyone,” Gerke said.
