{"id":437473,"date":"2026-09-16T06:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T06:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/437473\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T06:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T06:54:11","slug":"texas-police-department-that-arrested-mom-over-dirty-water-facebook-post-ordered-to-disband-by-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/437473\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas police department that arrested mom over dirty water Facebook post ordered to disband by state"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas police department that arrested a mother for criticizing the town\u2019s dirty drinking water on social media<\/a> has been ordered to disband after the state ruled that it provided no \u201cbenefit to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement sent Trinidad Mayor Dennis Haws a letter on Sept. 9 revoking the city\u2019s license to operate its own police department \u2014 determining the department had \u201cfailed to meet minimum standards\u201d as a law enforcement entity, KETK reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The action followed an Aug. 5 investigation in which the department was found \u201cunable to provide evidence that the agency provides public benefit to the community\u201d and lacked 18 required policies, including ones on use of force, vehicle pursuit, professional conduct and active shooters, the commission said.<\/p>\n

Texas has ordered the Trinidad Police Department to disband after the state ruled that it provided no \u201cbenefit to the community.\u201d Trinidad Police Department\/Facebook<\/p>\n

The investigation into the department was triggered after Jennifer Combs was arrested for felony false alarm or report and tossed in jail for a night in May following a Facebook post alleging that bacteria in Trinidad\u2019s water pipes had hospitalized residents.<\/p>\n

Police defended the arrest, claiming Combs\u2019 post had created \u201cfear, panic, or unnecessary emergency response within a community\u201d \u2014 despite the city itself posting a notice urging residents to boil their water to \u201cavoid harmful bacteria\u201d on April 21, weeks before her arrest.<\/p>\n

Despite the mounting contradictions, Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory doubled down \u2014 calling the case against Combs \u201ccut and dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police also arrested a supporter of Combs, citizen journalist Winston Noles, for misdemeanor disorderly conduct after he displayed a \u201cf\u2013k bad cops\u201d sign outside city hall, FOX 4 reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Combs\u2019 arrest quickly drew national attention, prompting Gregory to drop the felony charge against her and the state to launch its investigation into the department.<\/p>\n

The state launched an investigation into the department after Jennifer Combs was arrested in May following a Facebook post alleging that bacteria in Trinidad\u2019s water pipes had hospitalized residents. Fox 4 News<\/p>\n

Brownish tap water supply in Trinidad, Texas. Fox 4 News<\/p>\n

The charge against Noles was also dropped.<\/p>\n

Gregory resigned on June 19 \u2014 despite telling a Trinidad City Council meeting he had \u201cnothing to hide\u201d regarding the arrests of Combs and Noles, Fox 4 reported.<\/p>\n

After his resignation, the judge who approved Combs\u2019 search warrant wrote a scathing letter questioning \u201cthe accuracy, completeness, and reliability of information\u201d two Trinidad officers had presented to him and Gregory\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

Combs\u2019 arrest quickly drew national attention, prompting the department to drop the felony charge against her. Fox 4 News<\/p>\n

The Henderson County District Attorney\u2019s Office announced in August it would stop taking cases from the department following the state\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

Separately, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality found issues with Trinidad\u2019s water supply \u2014 the very concern Combs had raised \u2014 which city officials have since promised to address.<\/p>\n

Following the news that the department would disband, Combs wrote on Facebook<\/a> that \u201cfor months, citizens who questioned this department were dismissed, attacked and in my case arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trinidad Mayor Dennis Haws said he wasn\u2019t shocked by the state\u2019s decision to disband the police department. Fox 4<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the state agency responsible for regulating Texas law enforcement has confirmed that this department could not demonstrate compliance with even the minimum standards,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were never the problem. We were exposing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haws also said he was \u201cnot a shock\u201d that the state decided to disband the department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of neglect through the years,\u201d Haws told FOX 4 News. \u201cWe are moving in a positive direction. We\u2019ve got to get past all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trinidad Police Department \u2014 serving a municipality in Henderson County about 75 miles southeast of Dallas \u2014 has five full-time officers and several part-time officers and will officially shut its doors for good on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Henderson County Sheriff\u2019s Office will handle all law enforcement calls for Trinidad \u2014 a city of just over 800 people, according to the 2024 census<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas police department that arrested a mother for criticizing the town\u2019s dirty drinking water on social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12023,672,151587,27,29,28,734],"class_list":["post-437473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-investigations","tag-police","tag-police-investigations","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437473","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=437473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}