DPS director: 4 years to get 500 troopers in Rio Grande Valley
The Department of Public Safety will take four years to fulfill Gov. Greg Abbott’s promise of an additional 500 troopers in the Rio Grande Valley, Director Major Steve McCraw told state representatives last week.
During his State of the State speech, Abbott said he wanted to secure the border by putting that many more boots on the ground. Once that happened, he claimed, National Guard members — already on one of the longest deployments on domestic soil — would be sent home.
But it appears that won’t happen any time soon, if McCraw’s estimates are right.
Hampering the Guard’s removal is that DPS needs to fill 243 vacancies first — the amount of troopers previously budgeted for. The next class of troopers graduating in June will drop that number to 187, McCraw said at the committee meeting.
Read more: http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/dps-director-years-to-get-troopers-here/article_c7e22d64-c149-11e4-b498-231b575cba70.html
