Public Safety North of the Border

December 2, 2022

Chris and Heather talk with Alpine Police Chief Darrell Losoya about questions of public safety in Alpine and the Big Bend.

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Transcript for “Public Safety North of the Border”:

Intro
Welcome to the heart of the Big Bend. It’s time to kick back, put your feet up, grab your favorite beverage or snack as we discussed, declare, proclaim, publicize and articulate about the wonders, magic, beauty, music and happenings here in the area known as the Big Bend of Texas.

Chris Ruggia
Hello welcome and thank you for joining us again for heart of the Big Bend. This is a podcast and radio show coming to you every other week about visiting the beautiful Big Bend of Texas. Specifically, we will cover what’s happening in Alpine, an incredibly friendly, small town nestled in a desert mountain valley at the heart of the Big Bend region. With easy day trips from Alpine, you can take in everything this amazing region has to offer. 

I’m Chris Ruggia, Director of Tourism for the City of Alpine and today we get to welcome back Heather Yadon from the Alpine Visitor Center. Thanks for coming back, Heather. And also we’re thrilled to talk with Alpine Police Department Chief, Darrell LaSoya. Hey Darrell, thanks for joining us.

Darrell LaSoya
Happy to be here.

Chris Ruggia
All right, so we asked you to come talk to us today about General ideas of Public Safety in our area, for the traveler. And we’ll talk about the resident experience, because that’s what Heather and I can can bring to bear but you can give us some inside information about about what’s really going on. And part of what, what brought this topic up – this is a little more newsy, I guess than the, “just come out and see us,” – because we have gotten some questions from people who are thinking about traveling to the area. And also specifically about the podcast is like, why don’t, why haven’t we talked about “The Border,” which yeah, which nationwide is a hot topic, you know? And one that has a lot of energy behind it obviously.

And and so one of the things we wanted to ask you about is to share with the folks listening what’s really happening in our immediate area with travel across the border. But, you know, we’re thinking of unauthorized travel mostly in that national conversation of course. And what, you know, people are likely to experience if anything, because I’ll just say my own experiences, I’ve had no impact personally from all of these hot topic discussions. I’ve never been accosted by anyone who had crossed the border in unauthorized way. Now, of course, one hears though recently about how there is more, there’s more traffic happening. More people are coming across, but I’ll give you a second.

Darrell L
So what’s happening right now that, you know, one of the things that hear about Alpine is that everybody wants – a lot of people say that they want to wall. So we have a great God-given wall here in Alpine Texas, we have the wonderful desert of the Big Bend region from Alpine all the way to the border. It’s pretty much 80 miles of of wall that we have that deters a lot of the illegal immigration coming through this area.

I was just recently in Sanderson where they’re inundated with illegal immigration and that agency stays busy 100%.

Chris R
Yeah.

Darrell L
So it takes a lot of their time, but here in Alpine, like I said, we have the big deterrence of the of the region and so that deters a lot of the traffic though, we still do get quite a bit. It rarely makes it all the way through Alpine.

Chris R
I see. Yeah, most of the time, my friends who live on ranches have mentioned, you know, some people coming through and sometimes some property damage. 

Heather Y
Yeah, for water and other properties between here and Alpine or between Alpine and Big Bend, people have seen some of that kind of traffic.

Darrell L
Yeah, you know, I think for everybody that has grown up and Alpine such as myself, I grew up on the southwest side of town and as a kid growing up, it happened every now and then that we would have an illegal immigrant come to our home and ask for water. That has changed from from the way it used to be. They have gotten more more violent, more aggressive, but that’s again, we’re really not seeing that here.

Chris R
Mm-hmm.

Heather Y
What about for the visitor that’s coming through Alpine then heading farther south? Because a lot of our people do stay here and then go down to South County to the park and through Terlingua area, and stuff. And obviously, you’re a lot closer to the Border.

Darrell L
Yes. I was talking to some tourists that I just met recently – they were playing in the snow and I ended up talking to them – they didn’t see anything that would alarm them or that threaten them or made them feel unsafe.

Chris R
Yeah I guess if we’re looking at the motivations for this travel, accosting individual people isn’t really not on the agenda. There’s no benefit to the person crossing the border to accost or harass anyone. 

Darrell L
Correct.

Heather Y
I will say that the superintendent at the Big Bend Ranch State Park. She said that when she first started on the job, someone asked her, is it safe? And she right away, “well, we see a lot of wildlife, but they’re all safe.” She wasn’t thinking of it in the term that they were asking because it’s not part of her daily life that she sees their immigrant state parks. I thought that really put it into perspective for a visitor that’s coming.

You know, River Road is the main attraction of Big Bend Ranch State Park. There’s not a lot of bunch of trafficking happening right there. It’s a busy, highly traveled road. So when somebody asked her she right away started talking to him about the wildlife because, again, it’s not part of your daily life.

Darrell L
You’re more likely to run into some javelinas, some feral hogs or – 

Heather Y
A bear. There’s been a bear in Terlingua, right?

Darrell L
Right. And so yeah that’s that’s more of the problems that we’re seeing. Some of the calls that we get from some of the communities is like, what do you do about this deer problem? And we’re like, build your fence a little higher. 

Chris R
So, let’s see…broadening out a little bit in terms of public safety for the traveler, some of the things that might happen are – let’s say your car breaks down. You might find yourself stranded on the side of the road while traveling, that’s obviously…

Heather Y
And the next closest town is very far.

Chris R
Yeah. And so, I mean obviously keep your cell phone on you but, you know, for large stretches of highway there, there’s no cell service. That can be a concern for sure.

Darrell L
Yes. If you’re traveling through Paisano Pass and you have a breakdown, you may not have any phone service.

Chris R
Yeah so want to make sure that when you’re traveling, carry water with you.

Heather Y
Yeah, anywhere in this part of the world.

Chris R
You want it anywhere, if you’re going around walking, any hiking obviously, you want plenty of water, but have some in the car as well. And you might want to have some layers, 

Heather Y
Blankets this time of year.

Chris R
So keep some of those different layers of clothing on you. But one thing you pointed out that I had not seen before was for, if somebody does have cell service and they’ve broken down.

Heather Y
How can they get help?

Chris R
Yeah. The first thing you’re likely to do is, oh well, I’ve got AAA, I’ll call AAA but –

Darrell L
Yeah, good luck with that. So, you know, a lot of the services out here, we take care of our own. We take care of people that are coming through Alpine. So just call law enforcement, we have wonderful Sheriff’s Office, wonderful police department and our state troopers – everybody is willing to help out. If you have any problems, just contact local law enforcement. They’ll be more than happy to assist.

Heather Y
And there is a number on…driver’s license.

Darrell L
So on the back of your driver’s license, as I was telling you earlier, there’s a roadside assistance at DPS, you can call that 800 number. If there’s a trooper in the area, they’ll contact that trooper and then and get them out to assist you. I know Ronnie makes most of his guys carry – 

Chris R
This Ronnie Dodson, Brewster County Sheriff.

Darrell L
Yes, correct. Sheriff Dodson will have his deputies travel around with some gas.

Chris R
Yeah.

Darrell L
Just in case I run into somebody that does happen to run out of gas.

Heather Y
Which is an important thing for people that are driving here. Because even if you’re driving here, all the way from wherever you started or even if you get a rental at our closest airports, get gas in those places as well because if you come from Midland-Odessa, you have a long stretch from Coyanosa to Alpine where there’s nothing, to gas up and then if you’re coming from Van Horn all the way to Marfa, there’s no gas if you’re coming on 90 from like the El Paso area. So don’t go, don’t get below half a tank.

Chris R
Yeah, that’s a good rule of thumb.

Darrell L
You know, the one of the things that I always tell everybody the longest stretch of road, that there’s nothing, is between Ozona, Texas and Fort Stockton.

Heather Y
I have done it! I have run out of gas when I lived in San Antonio.

Darrell L
Bakersfield is there, but…

Heather Y
They have some 24-hour pumps now. That’s what saved me one Thanksgiving.

Darrell L
So you just got to be prepared for that.

Heather Y
Yeah. There’s a lot of stretches like that out here though that and you know, gas in general, also it’s better because there are times that our gas stations run out on busy weekends and it’s even more likely to happen down in the Terlingua area whenever they’re having something busy going on. Their gas stations run out and a truck isn’t coming there every day. It’s very remote location. So it’s always good to go ahead and have keep your tank full when you can.

Chris R
And another thing that I mean, times change in the old days, let’s say, even – I remember going into an event on campus and walking with somebody into, I think Marshall Auditorium for a play. And he stopped and he threw his car keys onto the front seat of his car and walked into the theater and didn’t think twice about it. And so, in a lot of small towns, “oh we never lock our doors…” 

Heather Y
“We never lock our house, we never lock our car…”

Chris R
Most of the time that’s not a problem but you know, it’s still not wise.

Darrell L
So during a night out, I was approached by one of our citizens and they asked if any advice that I could give to any of our citizens, what would it be? I said, “lock your doors.” Most crimes are crimes of opportunity and so if you leave your door unlocked, there’s a possibility that somebody’s going to walk in.

There’s so many crimes that we have where they just don’t leave their doors locked and then people go to the to the bars and they leave their vehicle unlocked and they leave the purse in the car and it’s just – again, it’s just a crime of opportunity. They’re going to see what’s in the car. They can open the door and just grab it and go.

Heather Y
Yes and our visitors that are coming into our hotels into our Airbnbs, those are in a lot of quaint little neighborhoods and you might not think about it, but you still need to be careful and lock the doors, especially, I mean hotel parking lots are such a field of opportunity.

Darrell L
And if you think about it, most people come to Alpine because it’s so beautiful, and we don’t know everybody. It’s not like the way it used to be.

Chris R
Yeah.

Darrell L
So there’s a lot of people that I don’t know, and I’m a suspicious –

Heather Y
You look at your surroundings, that’s for sure.

Darrell L
Yes, I’m a cop, I’m eye-balling everybody, so that’s part of my personality I guess. But I suggest it is just a way to stay vigilant and just make sure that you’re not a victim.

Chris R
Right. Well, and that said, I mean my experience in Alpine much like when we talked about with border issues…

Heather Y
I’ve never been a victim of anything, so what is our…I mean our crime rate is very…

Darrell L
Yes, yeah, our crime rate is very low.

Chris R
So while yeah, we’re warning people, but it’s true that Alpine is a like a lot of small towns – very low crime rate –  I’m not hearing a People having issues, but be smart about it, right?

Darrell L
Yeah. I’m not going to lie to anybody and say, “come to Alpine, nothing’s gonna happen to you,” right? And then, turn around, and something happened to them.

So, we do have crime, we just want people to be vigilant and make sure that they’re aware of their surroundings, locked their doors behind them, check their windows. 

Heather Y
Well especially ecause a lot of our visitors come whenever there is a big event, and that changes the entire atmosphere of our town. And that’s one of the things that Alpine is a very events-driven community, that’s why a lot of people come here, but that’s also when there is higher risk for, to be people who are not from Alpine. That may not, you know, that may be more opportunistic to visitors and things like that.So I think that’s why for people to be vigilant and kind of extra safe. You’re happy when you are in town for something like that, right?

Darrell L
So recently this summer we had a festival downtown, there was thousands of people and one of the things that I noticed while I was spectating was, I saw Bandidos there, I saw Mongols there, and everybody was just having a good time. I was kind of worried, I was thinking the worst but everything was was great. People just treat each other differently when they’re in Alpine.

Chris R
Yeah, it’s a friendly place. There’s no question.

Heather Y
I hear that over and over again for visitors and I think that, you know, that’s part of what makes us so charming, and that’s what everyone wants to come for.

Darrell L
So, it’s funny that we also brought this up because I was actually going to start working on this. It’s called the 9:00 routine.

Chris R
Uh-huh!

Darrell L
And basically I press the door locks on my car until I hear it honk. I check my doors, I check my windows once I bring the dogs in. It’s called a 9:00 routine and I’ll be posting more about that on our Facebook page.

Chris R
Just settling into this routine, sort of a ritual.

Heather Y
So 9:00 every night.

Darrell L
Yes.

Heather Y
You can come at my baby to sleep so I can go to bed at 9:00.

Darrell L
I’ll read ’em a good story.

Chris R
So is there anything else that comes to mind that you want like the the community and the visitors to know about kind of what’s going on in town? Are there any particular concerns that you’re looking at right now?

Heather Y
Pay attention to the one-ways, visitors.

Darrell L
Yes. So we have 2 one-ways. Do not turn from the right lane. If the lines are white, that means it’s a one-way. If the lines are yellow, it’s a 2-way. We call that the Alpine turn. They see Porter’s on the left-hand side and they get a cut that left turn right there in front of everybody.  One of the things I try to teach my guys is drive on the right lane when you’re on the one ways because it’ll keep you out of an accident, right?

Chris R
Right.

Darrell L
No, you know, we have a drug problem, just like every other community and we hate to use this term over and over again, but be vigilant, and if you see something, say something. I think that’s one of our biggest problems is that people will call me weeks later, like, you know what, something happened to me a couple weeks ago, and then I’m like, please call me when this happens because I can act on it, yeah, faster.It’s hard to backtrack and weeks later.

Chris R
Right. And so is 911 the best the best number? 

Darrell L
Yeah.

Chris R
Let’s say it’s not an emergency, it’s just, “I’m wondering about this,” 

Darrell L
You know, a lot of times I would hate to to take up our 911 system. It may not be an emergency to me, but it might be emergency to you. So yeah, just call 911.

Chris R
Okay.

Darrell L
And we have multiple lines, our dispatcher will guide them to the right telephone number to get the message. There’s an officer that needs to be responded to it a call or a call that needs to come to me later on.

Heather Y
And I almost forgot – last thing I wanted to tell people about is a service that is available in Alpine that I have sent people to you before. Sometimes people get stranded here and they miss the train or their car breaks down and they don’t have the funds to fix it and stuff they can come to Alpine PD and you guys help put them in touch with the Ministry Alliance.

Darrell L
Correct. So not only Ministry Alliance, but we also have St. Vincent de Paul from the Catholic Church. And so whoever has the funds during that time will reach out to them and see if they can assist the people in some way 

Heather Y
Because they’ve helped get overnight hotel rooms before, they get bus tickets, I think.

Darrell L
Yes, so Highway 90 is the longest highway across the United States. It goes from Florida all the way to California and it goes right through our little small town. So we have a lot of people if there’s a snowstorm that affects the interstate, people are deterred back on 290 and and they come through Alpine. A lot of the Mexico traffic, they’ll go through 90 and go through to get to wherever they’re going. And so, yeah, if they happen to break down, if they ran out of gas, or if they need a place to stay, we can probably assist them.

Heather Y
And they go through you guys for a safety check first and make sure they’re not on the run, or warrant or something.

Darrell L
Correct. That deters, that a lot of people, if they said well, I’m not gonna go police because I got a warrant, that usually an indicator that there’s something else going on.

Heather Y
Well, they would tell me that I would call you immediately, right?

Darrell L
Right. But the know our Ministery Alliance and our St. Vincent de Paul, they’re very cooperative and assisting to these people.

Yeah,  and again, we’re happy to help out any way we can.

Chris R
Well Darrell, thanks so much for talking to us again. I’m really grateful that we’ve got you as our police chief. Somebody’s been part of this community for you know your whole life. You you give a lot back to it and and we’re really grateful for everything that you do.

Heather Y
Yes, final note – everybody give presents to Darrell’s Blue Santa, that’s his big campaign going on right now. He gave away 400 pumpkins at Halloween and now he’s collecting presents for needy children in Alpine.

Chris R
Okay so you’re planning your trip to Alpine right now and you need to bring that present.

Heather Y
You can also go onto his Facebook because he has the address posted, so you can buy on Amazon. If you just love Alpine and want to help kids in Alpine.

Chris R
Okay, so you’re in town. What do you do?

Darrell L
We have boxes set out in multiple businesses, okay? If you want to take it to direct you to the police department and get your picture on our Facebook page, bring it on over. 

Heather Y
Does it have to be wrapped? 

Darrell L
Please don’t have it wrapped because then we got to open it up and figure out who it is for. So we have any city offices, City Hall Visitor Center, Police Department, the West Texas Credit Union assisting us, True Value, just got a call from Porter’s today. They want a box there, we have the Dollar Generals. 

Heather Y
So, pick up something while you’re doing any of your shipping and throw it in.

Darrell L
Yeah, just toss us a toy.

Chris R
And go to the Alpine Police Department Facebook page for more info there?

Darrell L
Yes, yes. And speaking of that, we also have our Operation Front Porch, which runs a year round. If you’re going to be away from home and you don’t want your Christmas gift for your grandchild stolen, have it sent to us, and we’ll just put in your name and again that’s on our Facebook page, Operation Front Porch.

Heather Y
And that’s something that like if somebody who’s on a long trip and like a cross-country trip or something, it needs to pick more supplies up, like people are doing big hikes. They pick boots up at different points or they could have something sent to Alpine.

Darrell L
And so again, this runs year-round. We have one lady and we’re constantly every – at least at least every week she gets something from Amazon. It’s delivered to the police department and she comes over and picks it up. And, very pleasant, and we’re more than happy to provide that service.

Chris R
All right, well thanks. Thanks for joining us today Darrell. Thank you Heather for coming back and thanks all of you for joining us for heart of the Big Bend every other week. If you want to get more information about the show, you can find that at visitalpinetx.com/podcast or search for Heart of the Big Bend on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast apps. And for all of you guys, listening to us on KKLP/KVLF radio in Alpine, we’ll see you in two Fridays.

Outro
You’ve been listening to the heart of the Big Bend. Hope you liked what you heard and that you’ll find the time to experience all that the Big Ben has to offer. See you soon, partner.

View all episodes of the Heart of the Big Bend Podcast