Killeen Police having trouble keeping officers
Jarell Baker
and last updated 2021-07-15 23:46:29-04
Veteran police officers in Killeen are trading in their badge for retirement and that is a problem.
âSome people are taking that early retirement because they are ready to move on. They want to early retire. Weâre not hiring at the same rate which people are leaving,â said Killeen Police Department Chief Charles Kimble.
Keeping police officers on the force has always been a tough task for KPD.
âThe slots have been budgeted for money for them we just havenât been able to fill them. Itâs a problem all the time and every city has it,â said Killeen Mayor Jose Segarra Killeen.
During a workshop meeting Tuesday night, Killeen councilmembers, along with law enforcement officials discussed a nationwide issue of police retention that has unfortunately trickled into the Killeen Police Department.
Killeen Police Chief Charles Kimble, alongside the cityâs Human Resource Director Eva Bark, spoke at length Tuesday with council about the issues that have contributed to a slow-down of fresh recruits joining the force.
âRetention is one of the most talked-about issues facing law enforcement,â Bark said during a presentation.
The numbers showed a hiring rate that wasnât able to surpass the rate of officers set to retire. Kimble said there are a number of factors at play here: Pay, performance and even the thought process of young candidates.
When a Facebook friend reached out to Kim Wedel shortly after Fathers Day, her world sank. It had been nearly two years since her son, Pvt. Gregory Wedel-Morales, had gone missing from Fort Hood in August 2019, mere days before he was supposed to receive his discharge.
His body was found 11 months later in June 2020 during the search for Spc. Vanessa Guillen, another missing Fort Hood soldier.
The problem, however, is that apparently not all of her sonâs body made it to his Oklahoma home to be buried, Wedel said.
The notification on Facebook was that a bone fragment was found by the memorial marking the spot where her son had been found in Killeen. Within days, two more people reached out to her on Facebook saying they had found additional bones.
A total of 14 people were injured and sent to the hospital, including one who later died and another victim who would permanently become paralyzed, police said.
New suspect arrested in Austin’s Sixth Street mass shooting in Killeen, police say
De’Ondre Jermirris White, 19, awaiting arraignment on murder charge
Updated:
Tags:
De’Ondre Jermirris White, was arrested in connection with the shooting that left 25-year-old Douglas Cantor, a tourist from New York, dead, in a mass shooting in Austin. (KSAT)
KILLEEN, Texas – Killeen police say they have arrested a suspect connected with the mass shooting that happened in Austin on June 12, in which one person was killed and 13 others were injured.
Austin police and the Travis County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday they had dropped charges in the Sixth Street shooting against two people and were looking for 19-year-old De’Ondre Jermirris White in connection with the shooting that left 25-year-old Douglas Cantor, a tourist from New York, dead.