Hope for reform and dialogue take center stage as San Marcos welcomes its new police chief

"His initial priorities are centered around our men and women of our department with strong family support," Lumbreras said. "He enjoys working with our minority community to bridge the relational gap and has a very targeted approach about recruiting female and minority candidates, which is extremely critical for us."

Standridge, who resigned as Abilene's chief of police in February, beat out more than 90 competitors.

"We not only—I believe—have the best candidate to serve as chief of police for San Marcos, but someone who will be a community leader and is going to serve with honor alongside great men and women in the San Marcos Police Department," Lumbreras said.

District 1 Council Member Max Baker, an advocate of the city's cite-and-release ordinance program that was instated earlier this year, voiced his support for Standridge's appointment.

"I think all of that's going to be really helpful as we look at police reform over use of force and other issues," Baker said during the council meeting. "He was even very keen on the ideas of understanding that sometimes there are laws in place at the state and federal level that are out of line with maybe how our community might see policing and might see what is justice."

Council's appointment comes days after a demonstration by reform organization Mano Amiga due to a delay in the commencement of a cite and divert program. The program would send qualifying people cited for low level crimes to the district attorney's office to seek alternatives to entering the legal system.

Street diversions were an unofficial policy used in the past at the discretion of San Marcos officers. Under the policy, officers could choose to release low level offenders at the time of arrest with a ticket or verbal warning.

Street diversions saw a steep drop this year around the time cite and release was being debated and implemented—May 31.

According to SMPD, there were 153 street diversions during the first quarter of 2020, but only 13 in the second quarter, which ended June 30.

An email from San Marcos Police Officers Association President Jesse Saavedra to City Council members—obtained earlier this year by Mano Amiga—said that SMPOA members would be instructed to cease street diversions because of the cite and release policy.

Mano Amiga Spokesperson Jordan Buckley expressed frustration toward SMPOA's position on cite and release and street diversions, and was looking to Standridge as a possible solution to the issue.

"I'm hopeful that the new police chief will exhibit integrity in clarifying that the ordinance does enable officers to make use of street diversion, and to ensure that they [SMPOA] stop trying to undermine the policy that they find unpalatable," Buckley said. "For many of us, the disproportionate arrests of people of color, and the over criminalization generally, is what is inexcusable in our view."

Baker said Standridge could also bridge the divide between SMPOA and City Council.

"I really look forward to the kind of energy that Chief Standridge is going to bring and hope that it'll help defuse some of the tensions we've been seeing between the San Marcos Police Officers Association and our council," Baker said. "I think Chief Standridge is going to do a lot to help make sure that we continue being a leader when it comes to criminal justice reform."

Standridge, who is in the process of relocating to San Marcos, will begin work Nov. 16.

"We're hopeful that Chief Standridge will take the reins on this pioneering policy that has now been emulated statewide and champion prudent enactment as a model for other law enforcement agencies elsewhere across the nation," Buckley said.