After KHOU 11 Investigates reports, Coffee City fires police chief, deactivates police department

Coffee City leaders voted unanimously to fire Chief of Police JohnJay Portillo and to deactivate the entire department until a new chief could be hired.

[bluehills]

My problem is you can’t tell me the Mayor didn’t have a clue !

[catharineshortt]

Excellent work and a prime example of the critical importance of investigative journalism for the good of all people.

[chrisbutler]

KHOU11 has proven that real journalism still exists. Thank you for your amazing work on this story!

[theguyman]

Brilliant investigative journalism with a happy ending. Cheers to the KHOU 11 team.

[anonymousbrown]

Why isn't the chief been arrested yet? Arrest him and hold him for extradition to Florida. Just like he would for anyone else that he would have caught.

[ctcanine]

The chief and his officers need to be charged with payroll fraud, as well as other crimes…

[PilotFlightMars]

There is absolutely no way the council didn’t know the deep corruption within their Police department.

The citizens would have 100% approached council about the over policing and heavy handed conduct of their department.

We have seen that when a complaint was made agsinst the Chief, the council advised it wasn’t their problem, and as the misconduct happened whilst the chief was working a second job, it was that employers responsibility to investigate and take action.

The council NEEDS to be investigated by the FBI, their email and text messages need to be reviewed to determine how much the council knew, when they knew… and why they chose not to act upon it.
They were known across the state as being a corrupt department… the council can’t say it was in the dark on this.

[tracyeaves]

Someone needs to look into the mayor and city council for corruption.Because it sounds fishy that the mayor and city council didn’t know what the chief was doing because is it the city council that voted on the hiring of police officers

[jasoncody]

It's amazing how fast City council can act when a fire is lit under them

[jimchoate]

I was told it is impossible to start from scratch.
Fire the whole dept, see how easy that was.
The entire United States needs to reset thier cop depts.

[jenkor]

The citizens need to get together, take their cameras into their city hall and do an instant FOIA request. Literally walk in, request copies of public records, and take pics of all of it. Show up to every city council meeting and RECORD IT. Your city council was well aware of what was happening. Don't let them destroy the records.

[BootLegJustice]

The big question for me is, where was TCOLE in all of this and why did it take a Journalist to uncover what they should've never let happen???

[gustafchurn]

They need a new city council too! They had to be in on it!
JohnJay Portillo a name to keep track of!
I hope he will testify against the council!

[Smellslikegelfling]

They defunded the police for the good of the people. Nice job!

[texas_man_the_legend]

Great work... I fear the investigation isn't done though.

No city police force operates independently. It operates under the direction of city management.
There is no way that this city council, mayor, and City manager had no idea what was going on.
They have to approve programs, associate budget, approve hiring and firing.

I hope that you continue your excellent investigation and give this community the true justice that they deserve.

[Tonedog]

I'm thankful there's news stations like KHOU to open our eyes to these things. Kudos, KHOU!

[FastLifeHemi]

They need to fire the all 49 of those cops…. Clearly they are there to rob and extort people passing through that small town

[pedrowhack-a-mole]

How did the chief ever swing a budget for 50 officers in a town of only 250??? I don't think that investigation is anywhere near to being over! I bet there is ignorance and/or malfeasance in that mayor's office and town council that the townspeople would like to know about...

[markbaylor]

I'm not even from Texas but this popped up and I've been following. It since the first exposure. Great reporting and an even better outcome. Hopefully the city and new chief get it right this time.

[aguyinarkansas]

Any time your police department uses blacked out patrol vehicles instead of visible ones, you know your department is bad