So You Got Arrested

From Patrol to Investigations: 29 Years in SAPD with Greg Andrade

• BRCK Criminal Defense Attorneys

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In this episode of So You Got Arrested, hosts Steve Barrera and Scott Simpson sit down with retired San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) officer Greg Andrade. With 29 years on the force, Greg shares an inside look at the transition from rookie patrol officer to Uniform Evidence Detective.

The conversation dives deep into the realities of life on the "West Patrol," the complexities of policing your own neighborhood, and the evolution of law enforcement technology—from Polaroid cameras and handwritten statements to modern dash cams and rugged laptops. Greg also provides a law enforcement perspective on:

  • What goes through an officer's mind during a high-speed chase or a felony stop.
  • The legal requirements for identifying yourself during a traffic stop.
  • How an officer decides between a warning and a citation.
  • The "behind-the-scenes" process of collecting evidence at crime scenes.

Whether you're curious about police procedure or want to understand your rights during an encounter, this episode offers a balanced look at the men and women behind the badge.

Setting The Stage: Texas Justice

SPEAKER_00

The Texas justice system is messy. So let's break it down. You're listening to So You Got Arrested, the podcast that tells you what really happens after an arrest. Hosted by brick criminal defense attorneys. We talk to the people who've lived it, worked in it, and been shaped by it. Whether you're facing charges or just want to understand your rights, your options, and the smart moves that could change everything, we've got your back.

SPEAKER_02

Just got them

Meet Retired Officer Greg Andrade

SPEAKER_02

excited. Uh, we have a former law enforcement officer on the podcast today. I've wanted to have a police officer investigation on this podcast to kind of give us the perspective of how somebody from law enforcement might view cases. So we have Mr. Greg Andrati, who is present helping us today. Greg and I are related. So uh but Greg, uh why don't you introduce yourself, kind of talk a little bit about your background?

SPEAKER_04

Okay, uh my name is Greg Andrati. I was on the police department uh for 29 years, San Antonio Police Department. Uh my first 20 was uh on patrol. Uh the last three of that was as what we call a UEDI. It's a uniform evidence uh detective. And um soon after that, uh I was uh not promoted, but I was I was uh I transferred to a follow-up unit, the property crimes follow-up unit. And there we did investigations on property crimes. Um and and that covers an array of topics, not just thefts and and uh stolen items, but uh animal cruelty, etc. There's other stuff that we'd cover.

Training And Life In Patrol

SPEAKER_02

So in order to become a police officer, um there's a you know kind of a regimen of training that you have to go through to become, I guess, uh what is it certified peace officer or it would be yes, sir.

SPEAKER_04

You'd be uh going to the San Antonio Police Department's police academy, you get certified as a Texas Peace Officer. Um then it took about six months from beginning to end, and you do go through an extensive amount of training, uh, more than what TCOL now is called TCOL now uh requires, and uh we would meet all those standards before you could uh uh graduate.

SPEAKER_02

I've seen the academy. I don't know if you've seen it, Scott. It's that I've been out there to speak before. Okay. It's over off Morrison, is that right? Fortune. I I always notice it because they have this driving track. Yeah where you I guess the officers learn how to drive in hazardous conditions or you know, I used to go out periodically to speak to all the detective in services about family violence cases.

SPEAKER_03

Okay. So yeah. That's a tough crowd, I'll tell you a very tough crowd.

SPEAKER_04

It can be. That's uh you know, I've always wanted to be somewhat of a uh an instructor, and uh I took the course back back in the day, I think 2011, with the intention of when I retired teaching. Um well that's what actually that's what you're doing now, right? I I just got hired as an adjunct for SAC, uh the law enforcement academy. Um I'm just beginning, so uh I don't know a whole lot yet as far as uh the process of being an adjunct, but uh you have a lot of background uh information to give you a lot of you're getting to teach, you're getting to instruct, you're getting to convey that knowledge that you accumulated in that 29 years.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, sir. So you said you started out on patrol for about 20 years. That that must have been interesting, some of the things that you saw.

SPEAKER_04

You know, I liked it. I I didn't take the the detectives tests for the first time until about 15 years on uh the department. I I just enjoyed being out there. I I had my own district for a long time. I I made uh Which substation were you at? I was on the West Patrol the majority of it. But I started off on South Patrol to to Prue Road uh for a year or so, and then I finally said uh I'm gonna go to West for I grew up on the southwest side of town. Got it. And that's where we then we had uh West Patrol service that area and uh worked in my neighborhood was uh good and bad thing, you know.

SPEAKER_02

It wasn't it was Did you ever come across people that you knew better? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Absolutely. And sometimes they'd recognize me before I recognized them, and they would say my name on the uh oh. So um only one time was it ever an issue uh where I removed myself, so I didn't have you know, there was no question about anything that might have happened.

Working Your Own Neighborhood

SPEAKER_02

So, you know, I I that's an interesting point that you raise because I would you see these TV shows and things like that, and and you know, in those shows you would see the chief of police who says, we need cops who are from the neighborhoods and walk the beat and get to know the people in the neighborhood. And it sounds like that's what you were doing.

SPEAKER_04

Uh yes, that's exactly what I was doing. And I I did enjoy working in my neighborhood, but then when you come across uh people personal to you, like you know, uh people you grew up with or that you might know, then it then it's like, you know, I don't know if I want to, you know, be here. Not that not because I don't want to help them. It's just because uh you're like, well, what do I do? You know, it puts you in an awkward position. Um so I moved to a different district. So they took me out of the Indian Creek district. And well, they didn't take me out, I I asked to just uh take a district not in that same neighborhood that I grew up in.

SPEAKER_02

So I I would imagine it it helps to know the neighborhood who the who the people are, who the players are, who the bad people are.

SPEAKER_04

Right. When you can relate to everyone and like, no, I know I was here. I was here, I grew up here, uh I right down the right down the road, or that's the school I went to. Uh I understand what you're talking about, I know where you've been. Uh Indian Creek had a reputation when I was a prosecutor. It it does. I in and to some point it still does. But uh when I was early 90s, um I was on South Patrol, but then I went to West Patrol about in '98, '99. And um it was it was, you know, it's one thing or the other. Was a gang member, it was just family violence, it seemed

Gangs, 90s Crime, And Patrol Reality

SPEAKER_04

like at the time.

SPEAKER_02

So I I you know, I was in San Antonio um and growing up in the early 90s, and I remember at some point there seemed to be this huge explosion of uh, I guess, gang activity. It it coincided with the movie Colors coming out. That's just the way that I perceived it. You know, that uh there was this movie out, and then all of a sudden you started hearing about all these different gangs, and that would have been around the time that you were. Absolutely, it was.

SPEAKER_04

You were uh one of three probably prominent gangs, you know, Blood Scripts or uh the Brown, they call them Brown, uh I don't know the exact term they used, but uh the Hispanics, you know. So um it it was a challenge. It was fun for me. And when you're a young officer, you get involved in a lot, you do a lot, and uh you help out a lot of people. I mean, one way or another, you you you help them out.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So, you know, you're on patrol for 20 years.

Why Traffic Stops Feel High Stakes

SPEAKER_02

I wanted to kind of talk a little bit about that. Because uh from time to time, we have clients who come in and they have questions or they have comments about when they were pulled over and things that happened and things that you know uh they feel should not have happened. Um so I I wanted to kind of address some of those things. So when an officer is making a stop, let's say that you know you're just making a stop for speeding, there are still probably safety concerns that you have, even though maybe it's just a stop for speeding ticket, right?

SPEAKER_04

Well, absolutely. Um when I was involved in a traffic stop or I initiated a traffic stop, it was obviously for a traffic violation. And when they would park in such a way that it wasn't safe for either one of us, um I would definitely contact them, get some sort of identification, and then have them relocate as long as everything was safe to do so. So um they sometimes just don't know, you know, and I don't hold that, I never held it against anyone, not knowing what you should do, or you don't know what to do, because sometimes you get young drivers that they're nervous or scared. And most people are nervous and scared. I get nervous if I would have ever to get pulled over, I would probably be nervous.

SPEAKER_02

So you talked about a situation like you're pulling somebody over on the highway and maybe they're jutted out into a lane or they haven't pulled over as far into the shoulder as they they could have.

SPEAKER_04

Right. Uh uh they didn't make it a habit of stopping people on the highway being a patrolman, but uh you would come across that um every once in a while. And when I did, uh they would, I don't know if they did purposely or not, or maybe just didn't know, they would stop right at the edge of the shoulder where they would force you if you had room to go in on the other side. And I think eventually that was the

IDs, Warnings, And Tickets

SPEAKER_04

tactic after a while, uh, after so many you know, officers are injured or or hit. I think I've seen that now. You start to move to the other side. And in my time on patrol, I did do that at some point, because when you're that close, and then you you park your patrol vehicle tactically in a way that so if it is rear-ended, because we know it happens, um it it jets out away from the the vehicle you stopped as well as you or or the the the motor, the driver.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I've kind of seen that now, and I don't know if you've noticed this, Scott, where the officers are going to the passenger side as opposed to the driver side.

SPEAKER_04

And I think it really depends on how much space you have, the traffic, uh how heavy the traffic is, how fast the traffic's going. Um I I made it a if I had to stop on the highway, I made it a habit to like, okay, let me give some basic information, let me have your ID, please, and let's exit the next exit. So if ever there was a time where they had to pull off the roadway because maybe they didn't feel safe, I was always okay with it. You know.

SPEAKER_02

Uh we all police differently to a certain extent. I've done that where the an officer lights me up on the highway and I wait until I get to the exit to kind of part of his weekly getting pulled over. I I tend to drive with what they call a lead foot. So one of the questions that comes up that people ask is um, you know, if I get pulled over by a police officer and they ask me for my ID or my driver's license, do I have to give it to them? And and Scott, I mean, the answer is obviously Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You have to you have to give it to them. Um now it's not necessarily an offense unless you have active warrants, but if you refuse to identify and you got active warrants, you're you're you're gonna get pick up a crime.

SPEAKER_04

Right. So it's my understanding that uh when we were where we were trained and uh in the intention is to give them the citation for the traffic violation, you know, they're they're being detained, you have probable cause to stop them, uh issue the citation, but if they're refusing to ID themselves or they give a a false name and date of birth, because we have access

Tech In The Car: Laptops And Lookups

SPEAKER_04

to go back to our our laptop. Well, then it was laptops, but we have access to go back to our laptops and run their information and uh the the DPS, the Department of the Public Service would give us the their driving credentials and it would give us their information so that sometimes it pulls up like there's no such individual. Right. And that happens a lot when they don't have it, so I lost it. Okay, not a problem. What's your what's your date of birth? You know your ID number. And I would rather have had the Texas ID number because it would go right to who they are. Right. Right. Uh and then they, oh, that's I go by a different, well, that's my name, but I go by this. Right. Well, what's on your ID? And I always try to make it clear, well, what's on your ID? Or where do you live over there? Okay, well, over there, what's what's what's over there? Can you tell me what the address is to over there? And you know, I can tell you I made a lot of traffic stops in my town patrol, uh, and the majority of the people were cooperative. It's rare that I didn't have anybody that wasn't cooperative, although I can predict off the top of my head right now that there was a few that just did not like the police for whatever reason. Uh and I get that. I mean, I understand, you know, nobody wants uh a fine. Uh and that's not just mean you're gonna get a ticket every time. You might get a warning, which is essentially a ticket, but it's uh it's a warning.

SPEAKER_03

And it's my understanding it doesn't really go anywhere as far as but uh but but of course if you were gonna make a call between giving a warning and ticket, them being a jerk about the situation, how does that affect the code?

SPEAKER_04

I think sometimes it does. It has uh I guess it really depends on the the uh the aggressive uh driving habit that they may have had at the time or the violation or how hazardous the incident was, and then when you're running their their ID, we can see your driving history. So we're scrolling and then we're scrolling and we we're still scrolling and you have a number of tickets. Um odds are you're probably gonna odds are that you know that you're gonna probably get another ticket. Whereas if you see that you you've been stopped once and it was a warning. So, you know what, this this is just be careful just to let you know, you know, this is wrong with your vehicle, or uh in this area you might want to take a different uh a different driving tactic through this area because of whatever issue it was that you had to.

SPEAKER_02

And what you know, I think a lot of people don't know. You had mentioned earlier the laptops and the vehicles. I didn't know that until I started watching police dash cam footage as part of my cases. The officers have laptops where they're looking things up, they're typing things up.

SPEAKER_04

We have it's it's what it is, it's it's just uh it's uh a tough, I was gonna say tough shit, but it's it's a tough laptop. I don't know what they are now, but uh back when I was on patrol, they were when they were introduced, because we used to have uh small little little MDIs or MDTs, they called them. Um now they're they're big computers, they're laptop computers, you they're mounted well and they're not going anywhere, they're heavy duty. Uh you you can look up not anything, but anything, you know, that is going to help us in our job to help help the people.

SPEAKER_02

So let me ask you this. Um when, you know, let me give an example, because I I have clients who come in occasionally and they ask questions like, well, why did the officer

Fleeing, Felonies, And Drawing A Weapon

SPEAKER_02

do this? Why did the officer do this? For example, you know, there was cases I had a few years ago where I had um a client who uh he was a young man, and uh the officer's pulling him over, just gonna write him a citation for speeding, and this young man, and uh I still don't know why he did it, while the officer's in the squad car preparing the citation, just takes off. And uh the officer, you know, gives chase, gets behind him, kid looks like he's gonna stop and takes off again. And eventually uh the chase ends, you know, the kid pulls off. Uh this was in, I believe, Carnes County or one of these rural counties. Ends up in a dirt road where he finally comes to a stop, the officer gets out and draws a weapon. And I remember the family in that case being upset. Why did the officer have to drive uh draw the weapon? And I'm thinking, well, this is a felony. Yeah. The officer doesn't know what's about to happen or why this person is running.

SPEAKER_03

Because you you the assumption is you're fleeting for some kind of some bad reason that there's must be a warrant out for you. Although that's not always the case.

SPEAKER_02

But yeah, can I can you kind of speak to that? Like what's going through an officer's head?

SPEAKER_04

Is that yeah, so immediately um you're you're thinking the worst, right? This he has to have a weapon, he has to have something so bad that he's going to go to jail for. Or he or she, because I we've had you know females take off too. Sure. Um so initially you're like, okay, um I'm gonna pursue this person or not, because you have to get permission. And nowadays I don't think you can pursue um under certain under certain circumstances you can't. They won't allow it. But I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02

You you get permission to pursue the phone.

SPEAKER_03

But too many problems with crashes during hot pursuit. Uh and so that there's there's they're more critical about uh approving a hot pursuit depending on what the circumstances are. It depends.

SPEAKER_04

Uh and when I was on patrol still, uh it had to be didn't have to be felonist, but it there was it was had to be a serious crime being committed or was committed or going to be committed. Um so you when you get the approval, then you you you follow up, and then you you know uh when you're you're stopping them and they pull over and then like, okay, I'm I'm good. Like, well, I you know, as an officer, you're like, no, well, I'm not I'm not comfortable right now. I'm not comfortable at all. You don't know what to do. So oftentimes you will draw, you will draw down. It really and the training tells you to protect yourself and everyone, a third person also, if there's a third person involved. Uh protect that we don't know if there's anybody else in the car. We don't know if there's young people in the car. So you you do it first and foremost for everyone's safety, right? And once they're under control, if they can bring being brought under control, because if sometimes they don't they don't want to go. Like I said, they they could be a pro-lean and that this is it, you know, this is it for whatever reason, or they do have that warrant that they don't want to answer to, it's gonna turn into something a lot worse.

SPEAKER_03

But let's talk. We're we're up against the break here, so we're gonna take a break and we'll finish that off on the other side.

SPEAKER_01

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Pursuit Policies And Safety Judgments

SPEAKER_01

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SPEAKER_02

And so we're back, and we're we're uh here today talking to retired San Antonio Police Department officer Greg Andrade. We appreciate your time. Yes, sir. Uh and one of the things that we were talking about is sometimes people have these uh misunderstandings or misconceptions about why officers do certain things. Um, you know, you were speaking to uh sometimes you're making these stops, especially if it's a stop involving a felony, and you're not just looking out for your safety, but you're looking out for the safety of others. You're looking out for the safety of a third party and you're trying to control that situation.

SPEAKER_04

Correct. And uh that's pretty much the whole purpose of when an officer does draw his gun. Um you're trained. It's been a long time since I've been trained, but it's uh when you're trained, you're trained to protect yourself as well as uh the suspect or victim or whoever it is, some that might be in the car. And until you're you're comfortable with having things under control, then you could holster and uh and every officer is different. Uh even though you're trained a certain way, there's still officers that will cancel cover. They'll cancel cover, even though you're told not to, um, most of the time. And there's certain situations you you've either been there before or you know the people, and that's where you know knowing the neighborhood is is important for help. And being a good district officer, you get to know the people and you know your hot spots, and then you know the the good people that are willing to help you. So um once you're comfortable and you make contact and like that that person wasn't goes, okay, now I'm good, ended up they didn't have anything, correct?

SPEAKER_02

Or is it right, yeah. You know, I don't know if you've ever had these cases, Scott. I've had a handful of them. A lot of times when somebody takes off in a vehicle and they're evading in a vehicle, it's a felony. You automatically assume, well, the reason they're doing that is because there's some bigger crime being committed.

SPEAKER_03

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: They either have like some type of warrant and they don't want to go to jail, or there's something like drugs or something in the car they're not supposed to have. And that's the assumption, but we've seen plenty of cases where they just panic because somebody got behind them and just took off for some reason.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they have nothing, they have no warrants, they have the contraband, they have nothing, and then they just take off. And then you're right. They come to a stop and they're like, okay, everything's fine, but the officer doesn't know that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And we won't know until, you know, and quite honestly, um an officer is is gonna

Plates, Registration, And Stolen Tags

SPEAKER_04

say, nah, you you know, you probably got rid of something, which is whatever. We don't have it now.

SPEAKER_03

But they could have thrown something out the window during the day.

SPEAKER_04

Aaron Powell, and that's probably, you know for the most part, right? I mean, I don't know for sure.

SPEAKER_03

Once they take up in a vehicle, it's gonna be a felony.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. And then that's you know, that's where you you, you know, again, you pursue if you're given the authority to pursue, and if not, then you you don't. And then I think a lot of officers, uh, there was a time where the transition was taking place where they were doing a, you know, they were coming down, uh not coming down, but they were like not allowing some pursuits to to take place. And I I I think you know, you look at it from both perspectives. I I know I do now, you know, being older and with the years that I had, um in in some cases it might have been better to pursue and and probably most, it's it was okay now. not too. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, because most of the time in a lot of those, well, I we were talking about when you pull somebody over, they took off. Whereas so so you already know who you got. Correct. Whereas somebody just never pulls over. You you know that who the car is registered to, but you don't necessarily know who's inside the vehicle.

SPEAKER_04

And sometimes that can be an issue too because uh when plates are stolen and you you run it in a the whoever they were stolen from, you just don't know that their plate was stolen until you know you call them and says, hey, do you know? And we've I've done this several times too says you are you missing a plate goes no I don't think so and they go outside and I go holy crap my plate's gone. I'll say well we have it over here. It was probably it was stolen and it's on this car now. We have the car we have your plate um if you want you can come to the the pound and pick it up or if you want to come by we can give a release it to you whatever the case is.

Holidays, DWIs, And Field Tests

SPEAKER_02

Right. So uh we have the the holiday season coming up and so unfortunately with the holiday season that uh brings a lot of uh people celebrating uh you know having some cocktails some some drinks and then uh despite uh you know the what they should be doing they they they take the road and they you know they they hit the road and they've been drinking um Scott and I have talked about this previously how you know we see these CWI cases and inevitably on the video when the officer asks have you had anything to drink the uh person in the vehicle says yeah I've had a couple um have you ever had a case where somebody said hey I've had a couple and you said a couple you should be fine I'm not gonna investigate you know just two no problem go on your way have a nice night no I can't say I've ever done that where I just had a couple um you you you have to go through the your your field investigation at the very least right and then you can make that determination after field sobriety or whatever it is that you're you're trained to do and if you think it you're you're borderline there's there's a specialist DWI specialist who can come out and do other tests that would be a field sobriety test yes and then and then they may or may not be arrested is it really depends.

SPEAKER_04

You know given today what we have available to us um Uber Lyft uh family I mean we've always had family that would you know would probably come and get you that and you know sometimes you you you you're uh drink in excess to to a point where like I'm fine I'm fine most oftentimes you're probably not uh you're not a good judge of how yeah and and we see that all the time you know I'll I'll have people that I talk to who uh come in on a DWI and when I'm talking to them about the case at the time that they're hiring they'll say like oh I did the filled sobriety test I did all those tests and man I passed.

SPEAKER_02

I did so well on them. And you know I don't understand why they arrested me. And then you go and you watch the video and they just it didn't do well at all.

SPEAKER_04

I mean and and that goes back to the idea that we are not the best judges of how intoxicated we are we have a lot of people who insist that they they looked good and then we we bring them into the office and show them the body cam that you have and they're like, oh I don't think I want to take this to trial after so back back when I was when I first started you know probably 30 years ago um we would do the field sobriety and if there was any question and there wasn't um a DW DWI to to help you out and and just kind of confirm some of what you see uh you would take them to um the the the the ASAP office and uh they would run another video. And it got even better there because when I started we didn't have video. Okay. So that's why you always ask for a second pair of eyes just to kind of confirm what you know and then if not uh you'd go to the ASAP office and then the there would be video in there and they would have an ASAP ASAP operator uh that would run the cameras and and perform the test again and then uh and that's where they had that old school um intoxicalizer blower big old machine I was like wow that's crazy but um so there was even back you know back then there was

“I Passed The Tests” And Video Truth

SPEAKER_04

you know we checked and double checked and uh I can say I didn't do a whole bunch of them I did my share um I was a uh truly a first responder I had a district I I made uh a lot of a lot of calls that required um sometimes a lot of hands on um so it was it was uh it was it was fun it was fun well and so you know when in your capacity you said you were a first responder so what kind of calls were you responding to anything and everything so um when we first started the academy they they made sure that we knew we answered 100% of the calls. Okay. So I've I've taken calls for flying cockroaches believe it or not because they thought there might be a dead body. So and that with those details okay we'll we'll go check it out.

SPEAKER_03

Something smells funny around here but it was just mobs cooking.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah yeah yeah and sometimes it was it was a body sometimes it was a body wow uh so it's I imagine a lot of family violence calls. Tons of family violence calls on West Patrol we got tons of family violence calls um drugs uh thefts robberies stabbings I mean uh aggravated type uh offenses so I've seen a little bit of everything I think most I don't see most police officers but those who work in high crime areas and busy busy districts I worked the B shift for a lot of years on the West Patrol so it's it was super busy. And then later as a uniform evidence detective you would be the person who comes out and starts collecting the evidence taking photos of the crime scene and all that so I have to say when that that that program started um it was still we had what we were supposed to do but it not everybody agreed with it especially patrol officers like no I don't want you in my district if you're not going to take calls but so for for the first few weeks or probably the first year uh we were still first responders and then i there was a couple of occasions well well you're already there just collect the evidence and like okay so we'll do I'll do both and you know ID I'm getting paid a little bit more but I I can do both on certain cases we can do both. And that became uh somewhat of an issue.

SPEAKER_03

They they ironed everything out by now and I um we could talk forever about how hard it was to get police back in my day when it first started we never had photos of family violence cases. Oh I think that's part of the part of the reason Prince and photos we so so we had gotten a uh um uh organization that was going to donate Polaroid that this is how along the Polaroid Polaroid cameras that's what we used to get Polaroid cameras but then then the police SAPD didn't want their officers to have the Polaroids and then they said well we because we can't can't put on a budget for the film and then it turned out later I found out part of the reason was the union contract said uh only detectives are allowed to take photos, not patrol. And so there's all these issues about who can do what it constantly goes back and forth all the time.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah so when the program started uh they they equipped us with uh really good cameras and then we were responsible for uh photographs at most crime scenes as well as fingerprinting uh drug testing uh some other um tasks so you had the field test

From First Responder To Evidence Detective

SPEAKER_04

for the drugs we did have the field test and we would be dispatched and uh and that's part of the reason why you there was a sometimes it might have been an issue because it was a time delay too because when you asked as a as a as a victim I I yeah I want fingerprints. Okay we'll try to get somebody here tonight if we can. And you at the time you only had civilians well you had you had uh detectives that were part of that the CSI unit but uh they weren't on patrol like they are like UEDIs are um so um it would take hours and sometimes the next day and that really upset people and I understand that you know um so that and photographs now they're uploaded at the bat right after the end of the shift they're uploaded and they should be in the system.

SPEAKER_02

Trevor Burrus Technoles improved your ability to do the work at the scene way differently well and it it used to be the case you know because I I've been around long enough to I remember having handling cases at the beginning of my career where there were no body cams. I remember handling cases at the beginning of my career where there was no videotaped statements from the accused they were handwritten they were handwritten with the warnings written at the top of the that's absolutely right and so things have really come a long way since then and and you know it can be um uh a good thing for law enforcement sometimes it can be a bad thing because nowadays I think jurors expect that they're gonna be able to see a video and so if a video is corrupted or lost or misplaced or what have you that can be a huge issue for the state.

SPEAKER_03

So how many years were you in before you first started you haven't bought a cam? Oh gosh probably the first 15?

SPEAKER_04

I was on the department for a while and uh it it started with voice recorders. Okay. They issued like a little pager voice recorder and then from there it it went to uh the dash cams and uh and even those have changed.

SPEAKER_03

They changed once or twice before we ever got to what they have now back then when when when it was just the dash cams I see the officers searching the guy under arrest uh in front of the vehicle. Yeah. So they could document everything you're taking out of this problem.

SPEAKER_04

And then everybody take it out and they put it on the hood. I think that's still a practice uh it almost seems like it's still a practice even with the body cams you still do it just because uh if your body cam doesn't catch something because of it's the angle at least you know what was the advance that you had technological technologically wise that you felt most helped you do your job? I think the laptops I think uh it drove some people to retirement oh wow and I wasn't real real uh happy with it myself because I'm not a computer kind of person but once you learn the system then it's it's uh what helped be out the most because you could come back and confirm things really fast. Uh the returns were a lot faster so you're not waiting to see if you know um a common name you're getting hit after hit after hit and then you gotta say okay is that the date of birth then you have a hit with the same date

Photos, Prints, And CSI Growing Pains

SPEAKER_04

of birth and you're like oh Jesus could you not let the guy go down the road and then you find out later they have three felony warrants.

SPEAKER_02

Correct correct exactly yeah interesting well uh wow okay so it it went by fast. Uh we could have talked for another hour. Yeah there's a lot to we may have Greg back on another episode. Greg we appreciate your time thank you for sitting and talking with us this is so you got arrested with Steve Barrera, Scott Simpson and Greg Andrade.

SPEAKER_00

Enjoy the holidays thanks for listening to So You Got Arrested if you found this podcast helpful share it with someone who needs to hear it. For more legal insights and real talk from the front lines of the Texas justice system follow us and subscribe. And remember Brick Criminal Defense has your back for more information visit us at brcadefense.com