WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – Chad Mathes of Garrison, Texas, was sworn in at the Texas A&M Forest Service headquarters in College Station this week and is now the agency\u2019s newest Law Enforcement Investigator.<\/p>\n
Mathes brings a high level of experience to this elite group, with over 20 years of investigation experience in law enforcement as well as a Master Peace Officer certification, which is \u201cthe highest Texas Commission on Law Enforcement proficiency certification a peace officer can obtain in Texas,\u201d according to Texas A&M Forest Service Chief Law Enforcement Officer Connor Murnane.<\/p>\n
\u201cA well-seasoned investigator, Chad has a knack for staying up to date on current crime trends and provides a high level of customer service to victims of these crimes,\u201d Murnane said.<\/p>\n
Law Enforcement Investigators are, as stated by the Texas A&M Forest Service, \u201ccommissioned peace officers responsible for enforcing state laws, investigating wildland arson and protecting the timber resources that are vital to the Texas economy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last year, the department investigated 149 wildfires by examining data from factors such as weather conditions and burn pattern indicators, determining if there was cause for a criminal investigation, and taking the appropriate measures. They also completed 78 timber theft investigations, recovering over $156,000 for victims of timber theft.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KAUZ. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) – Chad Mathes of Garrison, Texas, was sworn in at the Texas A&M Forest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51548,10732,37667,51549,4201,865,51550,4202,27,3042,29,28,51433,51552,51551],"class_list":["post-117436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-chad-mathes","tag-college-station","tag-forest-service","tag-garrison","tag-kauz","tag-law-enforcement","tag-law-enforcement-investigator","tag-news-channel-6","tag-texas","tag-texas-am","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-timber","tag-timber-theft","tag-wildfire-investigator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}