DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Funerals for the 18 victims of the mass shooting in Maine last month are nearing a conclusion with a service for a husband and father of two sons who was slain at a bowling alley.

Autonomous vehicles, or AVs, are here. Tribune journalists took a ride in one recently and answer the biggest questions about who’s driving the driverless trend and how the state regulates them.

The Department of Public Safety is asking for the public’s help in locating an alleged sex offender who has been on the run since May.

Julio Urías was placed on administrative leave indefinitely by Major League Baseball, three days after the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher was arrested on suspicion of corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant.

Multiple people, including two DPS employees, have been arrested for providing fake vehicle inspections, which is known as “clean scanning,” in Texas.

The footage shows Jackson being tackled to the ground and placed in handcuffs, with the Amarillo Republican directing a profanity-laced tirade toward a trooper. His office has said Jackson, a physician, was trying to help with a medical emergency.

More than 8 in 10 people charged by state troopers since they began helping Austin police have been people of color. In Southeast Austin, a neighborhood president calls it “outright racial profiling.”

After initially supporting the governor’s efforts to stem illegal immigration, many residents say Operation Lone Star has gone too far.

Texas officials say state police officers separated migrant families along the border with Mexico by detaining fathers on trespassing charges and turning over mothers and children to federal agencies.

Texas authorities believe the person drowned upstream and floated into the buoys near Eagle Pass. Mexico criticized Texas’ placement of the buoys along the river.

McLaughlin, who led the small South Texas community through the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, was first elected in 2014.

The Office of the Inspector General is investigating the claims, which include pushing small children and women with nursing babies back into the river and turning away a 4-year-old girl who later passed out on the riverbank from the heat.

Experts say many of the changes will bolster school safety but some requirements may be challenging for public schools to implement by the upcoming school year with limited funding and staffing constraints.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson had said that troopers pulling a gun on a 10-year-old prompted the end of the agreement. A video of that encounter shows troopers with guns pointed at the ground, not the child.

The state police agency had been withholding nearly all of its records on law enforcement’s botched response to Texas’ deadliest school shooting. DPS will have an opportunity to redact the files before they are released.

Texas Department of Public Safety officers were criticized for the disparate number of Latino and Black residents arrested during the first iteration of a partnership to help Austin with policing duties.

The governor revealed plans for a floating river barrier at a Capitol signing ceremony for six new laws related to border security. The first 1,000-foot section will be set up near Eagle Pass.

Local, state and federal authorities say they are trying to determine a motive behind the fatal shooting of eight people in North Texas on Saturday.

Truckers have reported waiting up to 24 hours to cross the border because of the inspections. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered similar inspections last year to stop smuggling, but troopers found no contraband after checking more than 4,000 vehicles.

On the same day the Texas Legislature is set to debate Senate Bill 14, a proposed ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for kids, the attorney general files a request to examine documents related to the use of puberty blockers and counseling for trans youth.

A month after the Texas Department of Public Safety began patrolling Austin streets, city officials have both praised a drop in violent crime and condemned the operation’s disparate impact on Latino and Black residents. In 2019, Dallas faced the same challenges.

The Texas Department of Public Safety did a sweep of Capitol grounds with K-9 dogs and found no explosive devices.

Austin officials view the partnership as a stopgap measure as they try to fill the city’s more than 200 police vacancies.

A man has been charged with intoxication manslaughter after slamming into a pick-up truck and killing a driver in Magnolia Thursday, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

Many state-owned vehicles are aging past the standards for replacement. Early budget drafts signal that lawmakers are considering funding some $237.6 million in requests for new ones.

A Chinese crime operation bypassed the password clues of Texas.gov by using stolen identity information to fraudulently obtain replacement driver’s licenses.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is instead asking lawmakers for $381.5 million to upgrade its current facilities with better technology, dormitories and cafeteria for trainees from across the state.

State officials have repeatedly had to move money from other departments to keep Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion-dollar border mission running this year.

It’s the first-known incident where a soldier has shot a migrant since the mission began. The injury is non-life threatening.

A crash involving two 18-wheelers has shut down I-45 southbound at Shepherd Hill near Montgomery County Monday, the authorities with the Department of Public Safety said.

After the Texas Department of Public Safety suspended Texas Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell, one of hundreds of officers who responded to the May 24 mass shooting, felony cases he investigated are in jeopardy and experts have questioned the justification for his suspension.

State police often rely on federal immigration officials to lock up migrants on state trespassing charges, according to a new complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. The collaboration contradicts federal and Texas officials’ attacks on each other’s immigration policies.

These proposed requirements could take effect this school year after the Texas Education Agency takes public comment into consideration.

Audio obtained by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica shows just how long police and dispatchers likely knew that children and teachers were in danger before taking action at Robb Elementary School.

The representative called for McCraw’s resignation after the Department of Public Safety director said in a meeting that the agency had not failed the city of Uvalde.

At a public meeting where families that lost children in the school shooting said he should resign, McCraw said members of the Department of Public Safety made mistakes. But he said he’ll step down only “if DPS as an institution failed the families.”

Department of Public Safety Sgt. Juan Maldonado is the first state police officer fired in the aftermath of a botched police response to the shooting. He was the highest-ranking state trooper to initially respond to Robb Elementary School.

Gov. Greg Abbott said the school district knew the ex-trooper “had actions inconsistent with training and department requirements.”

A court had ruled that the state’s ban was unconstitutional. The attorney general’s office — usually a supporter of gun rights — said it will appeal but didn’t explain why.

Abbott directed the Department of Public Safety to boost efforts to collect intelligence on cartels and investigate gangs in Texas that support drug and human smuggling.

The state’s top law enforcement agency also told USA Today that seven officers have now been referred to its internal affairs division, including two who are command staff.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from several local, state and federal agencies have been heavily criticized for the delayed response in confronting the gunman during the worst school shooting in Texas history.

Two of Texas’ 10 Most Wanted offenders are back in custody, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Tuesday.

Officials from the Department of Public Safety have identified a man who was killed in a small plane crash Thursday in northwest Harris County.

Uvalde trustees are unsure if officers who will provide school security this year were part of the delayed response to the shooting at Robb Elementary.

The Department of Public Safety and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have partnered together to launch a public service announcement intended to promote a community reporting system as this school year begins.

The ruling sidestepped the question of whether the state police can withhold records concerning their response to the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School. The judge concluded that state Sen. Roland Gutierrez had not properly filed his request under Texas’ public records law.

The lawsuit alleges that the state police have unlawfully withheld records, including body camera footage and emergency communications, during the Robb Elementary shooting.

Two civil rights groups have expanded their request for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Operation Lone Star, citing evidence of risky pursuits and more frequent traffic stops of Hispanic drivers.

A 9-year-old boy who was camping at an Iowa state park with his parents and 6-year-old sister survived a shooting that killed the rest of his family.

Police say three family members were shot to death while camping in a state park in eastern Iowa, and the suspected gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The department’s officers made up nearly one-fourth of the 376 law enforcement members who responded to Texas’ deadliest school shooting. Announcement of the inquiry came one day after a report criticized police response to the massacre.

Residents and victims’ families say the way local and state leaders are handling details about the state’s deadliest shooting is compounding their trauma and grief.

Uvalde’s mayor is contradicting what was considered a major revelation regarding a police officer having the chance to stop the shooter before entering Robb Elementary back in May.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office will announce its multi-agency DWI initiative ahead of the Fourth of July weekend.

DPS said the checkpoints won’t occur at the ports of entry, which is different than in April when Abbott mandated all commercial vehicles entering from Mexico be checked by state police. The order snarled trade with Mexico at the time.

Texas had claimed sovereign immunity when a former state trooper filed a lawsuit accusing the state of not giving him an accommodation when he returned from military service.

Almost half the money is going toward bullet-resistant shields for school police officers, a move that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on fellow state leaders to support.

State and local Uvalde officials have fought the release of records that could provide clarity on the botched emergency response to the shooting that killed 19 children and two educators.

New information released by law enforcement sources and the director of the Department of Public Safety tells a different story about police response to the shooting than Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo.

Steve McCraw testified before a Texas Senate committee, laying blame on local police officers in Uvalde for not acting faster to save children during the school shooting.

The Texas Tribune has reviewed law enforcement transcripts and footage that federal and state investigators are examining after the May 24 tragedy.

Criticized by law enforcement experts for slowness in taking out the shooter, Pete Arredondo described an agonizing wait for a key that would work. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, he said he hadn’t spoken out sooner because he didn’t want to compound his hometown’s grief or point blame.

Patrick said he wants police in as many Texas schools as possible to have bulletproof shields before the fall. He’s asked other state leaders to move around money in the state budget to make it happen.

State officials provided a timeline of the massacre and have corrected crucial details amid public demands for information on how authorities handled the situation.

Abbott’s press conference follows a morning briefing from top law enforcement who admitted local police made a crucial error as the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde continued.

The governor ordered troopers to thoroughly inspect every commercial truck coming from Mexico in what he described as an effort to stop illegal drugs and migrants from being smuggled into Texas. His order for increased state inspections led to snarling delays in trade between the two countries.

The move provides little relief as trade between Texas and Mexico is hampered along the border because of Abbott’s order. The Colombia bridge is just one of 13 commercial crossings between the two countries and the only one connected to Nuevo León.

In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Reese and Mitchell about the fallout from sexual abuse allegations at a state-contracted children’s shelter and Russian threats against Texas’ energy infrastructure.

Search warrants show that Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson is under scrutiny by state investigators, accused of illegally confiscating cash and a pickup truck from immigrants stopped by his deputies.

The Department of Public Safety has released the identities of the pilot and passenger killed in a plane crash near the Katy Freeway. The pilot has been identified as Katy resident Solomon Babalola, 23, and the female passenger was Apesin Oluwafunmilayo, 20. She resided in Houston.

Police accountability activists are vowing to keep fighting for change despite the failure of a ballot proposal to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a reimagined public safety unit.

Minneapolis voters have rejected a proposal to replace the city’s police department with a new Department of Public Safety — an idea that arose from the May 2020 death of George Floyd.

Minneapolis voters are deciding whether to replace the city’s police force with a new Department of Public Safety.

The Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Border Patrol insist the 11 men, arrested under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border initiative, weren’t set up for trespassing charges. But a county attorney decided the case was too muddled to prosecute.

Investigators searching for an Iowa boy who vanished in May days before his 11th birthday say they have found human remains matching his description in a nearby cornfield.

The men were arrested by state troopers and held for weeks without facing formal charges, a violation of state law. It’s the latest misfire in Abbott’s hastily assembled effort to involve Texas in patrolling the border.

Defense attorneys have started asking courts to set migrants free because local justice systems, overwhelmed by arrests under Gov. Greg Abbott's border security push, are routinely violating state law and constitutional due process rights.

Officials said immigration authorities weren’t interested in taking migrants who had no criminal conviction into federal custody. But without documentation, at least one newly released migrant soon found himself back in detention.

Under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security push, Texas state police have arrested hundreds of migrants in the conservative county, usually after spotting them on cargo trains or walking remote ranch lands. Sent to a state prison retooled as an immigration jail, many men were left without lawyers for weeks.

The bill would nearly triple border security funding from the last biennium. The legislation needs one more vote of approval from the House before moving to the Senate.

After more than three weeks in jail, a trespassing charge against the man was dropped because state troopers shouldn’t have arrested him under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security push. He wound up in bureaucratic limbo for days as federal agencies passed the responsibility for resolving his immigration status.

Abbott instructed state troopers to pull over civilian drivers transporting migrants who may be infected with COVID-19 and seize vehicles if they don’t comply.

The Texas governor has derided federal immigration policy as "catch and release." But unless federal authorities now take them into custody, the migrants Abbott ordered state troopers to arrest could soon be freed.

The governor's decision to go all in on border security is evolving rapidly, and many of those on the ground don't know how it's going to work.

Border-crossing immigrants are being arrested by Texas troopers on state charges like trespassing, and they’re starting to trickle into a prison emptied to house them.

Here are things to know for Thursday, July 1:

A judge has condemned an Iowa police chief for using his city-issued stun gun to shock guests at two parties in 2016, calling it an “immoral activity” that could have caused serious injuries or death.

At least one person is dead Saturday following a plane crash at the Pearland Regional Airport, according to a Department of Public Safety officer.

Two men wearing masks were apprehended Wednesday afternoon robbing a McDonald’s in northwest Harris County, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

FILE - In this Nov. 27, 2020, file photo, a metal structure sticks out from the ground on the Batca Doamnei hill, outside Piatra Neamt, northern Romania. Its straight sides and height appear similar to one discovered in the Utah desert and another that was found in Romania. The 3-sided, 10-foot-tall, 200-pound monolith was similar to two others discovered recently in the Utah desert and in Romania. Video posted online showed a group of young men wearing night-vision goggles toppling what appears to be the monolith before dawn while chanting “Christ is king” and “America First." Federal and state officials in Utah had also expressed concern about the area around the monolith being overrun.

The Utah Department of Public Safety said biologists spotted the monolith on Nov. 18, a report that garnered international attention. While Utah officials did not say specifically where the monolith was located, people soon found it on satellite images dating back to 2016 and determined its GPS coordinates, prompting people to hike into the area. Reporters with The Salt Lake Tribune hiked to the spot on Saturday and confirmed that it was gone. “This was just a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we couldn't miss out,” Marino told KUTV. On the way, they passed a long-bed truck with a large object in the back and he said he joked “oh look, there's the Utah monolith right there,” he said.

GALVESTON, Texas – A Galveston man is now charged with murder after another man was found dead with a gunshot wound in Wallisville Monday, authorities said. Galveston police found Allen at a 69th Street apartment in Galveston County. He was eventually arrested and booked into the Chambers County Jail. “I appreciate the tireless efforts and continued hard work and dedication of our detectives in solving crimes in Chambers County. Special thanks to the Galveston Police Department for their steadfast assistance during this investigation, as well as the Department of Public Safety for their assistance at the crime scene,” said Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne.

– South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg reported hitting a deer with his car on Saturday night but actually killed a pedestrian whose body was not found until the next day, state investigators said Monday. The Department of Public Safety issued a statement Monday that said only that Ravnsborg told the Hyde County Sheriff’s Office that he had hit a deer. Tony Mangan, a spokesman for the department, would not confirm whether Ravnsborg called 911, saying it is part of the ongoing investigation. The pedestrian, who was identified as 55-year-old Joseph Boever, was not found until Sunday morning, according to the department. Boever told his cousin that he had been reaching for some tobacco.

AUSTIN, Texas Whether youre just driving around town or traveling this Labor Day, the Texas Department of Public Safety encourages all drivers to practice safe driving habits and exercise caution throughout the holiday weekend. Beginning Friday through Monday, the Texas Highway Patrol will increase its enforcement on Texas roads. DPS reminds all travelers to be responsible and practice safe driving habits this Labor Day, said DPS Director Steven McCraw. DPS enforcement efforts also resulted in 489 DWI arrests, 358 fugitive arrests and 354 felony arrests. Drivers are encouraged to follow these safety tips during the Labor Day weekend:

HOUSTON – Driver license offices in Texas are back open for business. However, if you are trying to book an appointment, the earliest available may be weeks or even months away. Margo Shea’s Wednesday afternoon appointment at the South Gessner Road office in Houston was booked about two months ago. When we checked for appointments for a new driver’s license, the earliest we found in the Houston area was Sept. 8 at the southeast office on Galveston Road. Madeleine Gibson, 17, said she made an appointment for a state ID about two months ago.

PHOENIX Department of Public Safety troopers in Arizona said they used a new device called The Grappler to help successfully end a high-speed chase in June. Troopers said they used it on June 28 to stop an erratic driver on State Route 202, according to FOX 10 News. End of East Valley chase caught on camera CAUGHT ON CAMERA: DPS officials say back in June, their officers used a device called "The Grappler" to end a chase involving a person who was driving erratically. Officials released details on the chase today, and say this is the first time they managed to use The Grappler successfully to end a chase. This device positively impacts the safety of troopers, the public and suspects, helping to end pursuits as safely as possible.Do you think this device should be used in Texas next?

HOUSTON An investigation is underway after a Tomball man was killed in a plane crash, according to officials. The crash happened Saturday near a private landing strip in Zavalla, which in east Texas. The Department of Public Safety said the 40-year-old man has been identified as James Duke Vanlue. Officials said Vanlue was flying from Tomball to Zavalla and crashed after clipping some trees near the runway. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

The Department of Public Safety wants people to know that it is ramping up the enforcement of Texas’ “Move Over/Slow Down” law.

SEGUIN, Texas – Texas has its share of homicide cases that have gone cold. KPRC 2 is taking a look back at both the solved and unsolved cases featured by the Texas Department of Public Safety to acknowledge the ability to solve cold cases and perhaps seek justice in cases that remain cold. READ MORE Inside Texas Cold Cases: Solved -- Eglena Diaz DeLeonWHAT HAPPENEDOn Dec. 13, 2002, the Texas Lutheran University student celebrated the end of her school term with a small group of friends at her Seguin apartment into the wee hours of the following morning. “This is far from a cold case, and I won’t let it become a cold case. It’s almost like they’re a family member to you.”If you have any information on this case, submit a tip through the Texas Rangers’ Cold Case website or call 1-800-346-3243.