The Texas Rangers: A Flawed Approach to Examining Deaths in Police Custody

Following the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, several states turned to independent organizations to examine deaths that occurred in police custody. Doing this is not a new approach to investigation; the Texas Rangers—the primary criminal investigative branch of the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS)—has done this for hundreds of years. Their recent involvement with Texas’ criminal affairs, specifically deaths that occur in the custody of local authorities, has brought a lot of attention to the program and its methods of investigation. 

The Texas Rangers were formed in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin, an empresario unsatisfied with the colony protection provided by the Mexican government. To protect the people living in his colony, Austin gathered a group of men to patrol the area—i.e., the Texas Rangers. The Rangers gained popularity during the Texas Revolution of 1836, and were authorized as the first official government-sanctioned ranger force to protect Texan land and settlers. Over the next century, the Rangers have worked in conjunction with the Texas government to conduct the following: major violent crime, public corruption, cold case and officer involved shooting investigations, and the overseeing of the TDPS’ border security and tactical and crisis negotiation programs. 

Today, the Texas Rangers are often called in by the state to review cases where deaths have occurred in the custody of local law enforcement. The Rangers receive a lot of backlash; the approaches the Rangers take to these investigations have been found to have pro-police biases as well as shortcuts to close cases quickly. The New York Times drew on “dozens of interviews and more than 6,000 pages of investigative files, autopsy reports, police records, and court filings” to make the claim that the Texas Rangers are unprofessional and hold bias that should not exist within outside investigative interventions. In some cases, the Texas Rangers did not speak to all appropriate witnesses, tasked organizations under review by the state of Texas to conduct interviews, and failed to investigate evidence of police officers being negligent. 

Since 2015, 29 cases in which a person died after coming into conflict with local authorities have been assigned to the Texas Rangers. Not a single case ended with local authorities being charged. In approximately two-thirds of the cases, inappropriate behavior by law enforcement, shortcuts taken by the Rangers, and mistakes made with respect to the cases were found. The New York Times gives an example: “After Genaro Rocha II died in jail in 2019, found bound in a harness in his cell, the Texas Ranger in charge of his case did not record a single interview in his case file.” The death of Genaro Rocha II is just one of many mishandled by the Texas Rangers, yet they are still called in by the state to review and investigate cases. 

After George Floyd’s murder, at least seven other states employed their own investigators from independent organizations, essentially following in Texas’ footsteps. These organizations are met with a lot of criticism from advocates for police reform and those concerned with the immoral behavior of the Rangers, but respect and admiration from local officials, Texas police departments, and populations that benefit from their protection. The Texas Rangers have yet to comment on the accusations.