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A tiny town in Texas has barely 250 total residents but 50 full-time and reserve officers in its police department.
Having a fifth of your town's residents be cops might seem unusual and according to Texas Commission on Law Enforcement records, it is. Coffee City is the only town of its size in the entire state to have this large of a police force. Of the 50 sworn officers, 38 are reserves.
"It’s such a small town, why do we need so many?" Coffee City resident Dylan Smith told KHOU 11.
Smith's fellow Coffee City locals agreed, with Robert Whittington declaring "Good lord, that’s crazy" when told how many police officers are employed in the small town. And Madison said there are cops "everywhere, literally everywhere."
Last year, the town collected more than $1 million in court fines, thanks to the more than 5,100 citations written by Coffee City's officers.
KHOU 11 Investigates discovered that more than half of Coffee City's 50 officers had been "suspended, demoted, terminated, or dishonorably discharged from their previous law enforcement jobs."
Coffee City police chief John Jay Portillo defended hiring so many officers with shady pasts, saying that "[t]here’s more to just what’s on paper."
"If you go back and look at the totality of the officers’ stuff, I would say 75% if not more … they’re being retaliated against from their agency," Portillo said. "I try to look at the good in everybody and I believe everybody deserves an opportunity."
