Texas Police Chief Who Allegedly Used N‑word During Investigation Placed On Leave

The chief of police in Castroville, Texas, has been placed on leave after a law enforce­ment offi­cer said he heard the depart­ment head use the N‑word at least three times dur­ing a mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion. The offi­cer who made the accu­sa­tion said a body cam­era record­ed the incident.

The Castroville City Council, after hold­ing an exec­u­tive ses­sion, placed Chief Brian Jackson on leave dur­ing a meet­ing Tuesday night that was streamed to Facebook. According to KSAT, Jackson report­ed­ly used the offen­sive lan­guage after a body was found on February 5 near Houston Street and Hwy. 90. Multiple police agen­cies respond­ed to the scene includ­ing the Medina County Sheriff’s Office and Castroville Police Department

According to the report, Jackson was record­ed say­ing the N‑word three times when refer­ring to where the vic­tim was from. 

Castroville Mayor Darrin Schroeder released a statement:

“The City of Castroville does not tol­er­ate dis­crim­i­na­tion of any kind. Our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem can­not be shaped by biased polic­ing and unfair judi­cial prece­dents, includ­ing atti­tudes and actions that are root­ed in racism and oth­er forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion. The emo­tion­al, men­tal, phys­i­cal, and finan­cial impact on our com­mu­ni­ties is a tan­gi­ble expe­ri­ence for too many and must be tak­en seri­ous­ly. The threat of racial vio­lence is real, so we must take seri­ous­ly all words and actions that can be pre­cur­sors to that. Schroeder added, “Everyone deserves due process. We have been noti­fied of alle­ga­tions against Police Chief Jackson and are inves­ti­gat­ing them accord­ing to our poli­cies and with all dili­gence. We believe in all human rights, so we will not dis­ci­pline sim­ply on rumors or hearsay, but we will act deci­sive­ly if we deter­mine guilt of dis­crim­i­na­tion.” Castroville is locat­ed 20 miles west of down­town San Antonio. The city has a pop­u­la­tion of less than 4,000.