Free Republic

Almost five months after an Austin police officer disappeared into the interior of Mexico in what was called an “elaborate ruse” to stage his death, Officer Coleman Martin has resigned from the department. The Austin Police Department said Martin’s resignation was effective immediately. The 29-year-old, who turns 30 next week, triggered a massive search operation when his truck was found on the shores of Lake Amistad on the Texas border with Mexico with a suicide note in plain view.

One man endured a night in jail and a criminal case hanging over his head for year, only to have prosecutors say they don’t think he was even guilty of a crime... A voluntary breath test showed he hadn't had too much to drink. He blew a 0.00 on the breath test. "I told them I would take a blood sample as well, just to prove that I didn't have anything in my system," Davis said. That test looked for seven types of drugs in his system, and Davis tested negative for all of them.

Protecting Austin is our job, and we'll continue to do so Sunday, February 8, 2004 Mr. Oppel, Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to your recent series on the use of force by officers in the Austin Police Department. One of your articles identified us as the "Top Ten" officers in the use of force statistics you compiled. The ten of us, like most officers, gravitated to police work for noble reasons. We looked forward to a profession that would allow us to directly serve the public, interact with a variety of people, and be in a...

Austin police practice 'different brand of law enforcement' in East Austin, report says By Tony Plohetski AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, November 14, 2003 Grand jurors who indicted an Austin police officer in connection with an on-duty shooting said in a report released Thursday that they are troubled by "a different brand of law enforcement" in the city's minority communities and called on officials to begin racial healing. The document, signed by each of the 12 jury members, also raises concerns about a tendency among top Austin Police Department leaders to assign younger, inexperienced officers to those areas. The two-page report was...