How the Country’s First Latino Homicide Squad Transformed Houston Policing At Least for a While
A new podcast explores the history of the “Chicano Squad” as part of a Houston police department effort to repair its broken relationship with the Latino community.
February 10, 2021
The Houston Police Department Chicano Squad, founded in 1979 after the killing of Jose Campos Torres.
Raymond/Frequency Machine
On an overcast evening in early May 1977, 23-year-old Vietnam War veteran Jose Campos Torres was in handcuffs for drunk and disorderly conduct at a cantina in Houston’s East End. Rather than taking him directly to the nearby jail, six responding Houston Police Department officers took a detour to a secluded spot near Buffalo Bayou that they called The Hole.