Tag Archives: Randall County Sheriff’s Office

crime news

Well done, Sheriff Richardson

I just got word via social media that a great police officer and a courageous public servant is calling it a career in Randall County, Texas.

Sheriff Joel Richardson is retiring. A former Randall County district attorney, James Farren, has endorsed Chris Forbis to succeed him. I don’t know Forbis. I want to speak briefly about Richardson.

I wrote a blog more than 10 years about how Richardson stood up to take the heat when an inmate escaped from the county jail in south Amarillo. He said clearly it was no one’s fault but his own. Richardson didn’t toss any corrections officers under the proverbial bus. The inmate escaped from a “non-hardened” cell, crawled over the razor-wire fence, hitched a ride with a couple of fellows, who took him into Amarillo. The cops arrested the escapee later that evening.

The sheriff took the heat for the embarrassing incident. That’s what leaders do.

With that, I want to say it was my honor to know Sheriff Richardson during my years as a working journalist in the Texas Panhandle.

Here’s what I wrote in September 2009.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2009/09/taking-the-heat-like-a-man/

 

local news

Police academy training can open one’s eyes

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Calling all cadets!

Randall County is looking for some good men and women who want to get a taste — and that’s all it’ll be — of police work.

Take it from me: It’s an investment in time well worth making.

The sheriff’s department is looking for participants in its next Citizen’s  Academy. Read about it here.

I went through an Amarillo Police Department Citizen’s Academy some years ago. I did so on something of a challenge from a senior officer at the PD, who had read a column I wrote for the Amarillo Globe-News that was mildly critical of something I  witnessed involving an APD officer.

My friend called me and said, in effect, “OK, buster, if you think you know so much about police work, apply for a spot in the citizen’s academy and we’ll show you how it really works.”

I accepted his challenge.

The academy lasted about 11 weeks, if memory serves. It was an eye-opener, to say the very least.

My classmates and I learned about dispatching calls, aerial surveillance, drug-sniffing dogs, the use of a Taser, simulations of the kinds of calls officers have to answer, firing pistols and other firearms. We all had a chance to be stung with a Taser; I chose not to do that.

We all got to ride along with officers and we received essentially a lifetime pass if we want to ride along in the future. All we have to do is request and the PD will make it happen.

I told my friend who challenged me to attend the academy that he would find no greater supporter of those in law enforcement than yours truly.

My support only grew as I attended the police academy.

Yes, it’s good PR for law enforcement agencies to ask constituents to take part in these sessions. I get that part of it.

It’s also good education for constituents to get a small — but important — taste of what these men and women do every day they go to work.

It’s sometimes dangerous. It’s damn sure never “routine.”

 

local news

Sad Monkey RR to smile again

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One of my four part-time jobs enables me to write news stories for KFDA-NewsChannel 10 TV here in Amarillo.

We call it “Whatever Happened To …” and it explores issues that might have dropped off people’s radar. The Sad Monkey Railroad once ran through Palo Duro Canyon. Then it shut down when the owner couldn’t comply with demands being made to make the train accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities, under federal law.

Guess what? The train is coming back to life … sort of.

Canyon City Manager Randy Criswell informed the station that the train “has recently been purchased, and will be refurbished and loaned to the City of Canyon for display at one of our parks … the train is actually being moved as we speak to the Randall County Sheriff’s Office, where it will be restored by the inmates there.”

The train had been sitting on some property near the entrance to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. It had ceased operating on the canyon floor in 1996. The former owner, who’s now deceased, decided just to park the locomotive and several cars next to the park entrance road.

The coolest aspect of this is that the sheriff’s office will allow inmates — I presume they’ll be jail trusties who get assigned to these work details — to refurbish the ol’ Sad Monkey train. Sheriff Joel Richardson agreed to the deal that will save taxpayers a whole lot of public money. Think about it: The train’s been sitting idle for nearly two decades, through scorching heat and bitter cold all that time. The cost of repairing and dressing up the cars would be immense if the city had to hire, say, a contractor to do the job.

Sad Monkey won’t be running on tracks through the park where it will be put on display. It will serve as a sort of kids’ playground.

It doesn’t matter. The Sad Monkey train has been given new life.

I believe I’ll give thanks today to Sheriff Richardson for providing the manpower to fix it up — and to the new owner, Barbara Logan, for her generosity in rescuing the old train from further decay.