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SAN MARCOS POLICE DEPARTMENT
Vehicle theft is up, and the city is utilizing a grant to address that problem with a new San Marcos Police Department unit. The San Marcos City Council approved, five to two, the authorization of a $177,401 grant application to the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority to fund the establishment of an Auto Crimes Unit within the police department. According to city documents, the grant funds would cover the addition of one fulltime sworn officer and 10 license plate recognition cameras. It also covers any associated training, equipment and overtime. The grant will pay 80% of budgeted costs, requiring a 20% match from the city. Auto theft crimes have remained high for the last several years in San Marcos and regionally. As of August 2024, there have been 157 stolen vehicles, up from 103 during the same timeframe in 2023. In 2022, there were 222 stolen vehicles and 490 vehicle burglaries. For 2023, those numbers were 225 and 375 respectively. The purpose of the grant is to set up an Auto Crimes Unit within SMPD that will provide a targeted focus on thefts and vehicle burglaries.
San Marcos City Council Member Amanda Rodriguez said there are lots of issues in the city that she considers far larger than vehicle theft. She said that 2.24 stolen vehicles per 1,000 people is not a big issue. Rodriguez wanted to know why the department felt that the grant was necessary, and she didn’t “want to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
“There are many grants the state creates that doesn’t mean we have to apply to all of them,” Rodriguez said. “There are plenty of big issues in the city that we don’t take such urgency to address, that we don’t take such intentionality to address, that are far larger than what we are discussing here.”
San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said that he feels it’s his duty to stop all crime, and that the grant allots for a “buffet of solutions,” one of which was education. Standridge said this is the second time the council has seen this grant and that the item at hand was only requiring the council to receive the grant.
“I totally disagree with you. I think it is my professional responsibility to evaluate all crime with a sense of urgency,” Standridge said, adding that the objective of the unit is to stop vehicle theft.
Rodriguez said she was not a part of that body at the time the grant application was approved and was concerned that the education piece of the grant, which she said would be the most effective part, was not given enough funding or priority in the grant application.
Standridge said that the city council has made education a priority not just for this specific grant “as evidenced by the fact that we moved forward with the Public Safety Communication Specialist.” He added that education is just one piece of the “overall organizational approach.”
“If we can identify a person who is responsible specifically for reducing motor vehicle thefts in San Marcos, which may help one, two or let’s say 100 citizens… How is that not a win?” he said. “It’s an intentional responsibility assigned to a specific detective.”
San Marcos City Council Member Mark Gleason said there has been a 50% increase in vehicle theft year over year and called it a “serious, serious problem.”
“Every vehicle that is stolen is typically used in other crimes. It’s used in human smuggling. It’s used in other robberies,” Gleason said. “These cameras and things they’re talking about are not just vehicles in our community, it’s stolen vehicles that are brought into our community and used in crimes. So it’s helping prevent crimes from people coming in.”
Rodriguez said there are bigger problems that the city has that deserve council’s attention.
“We, as policymakers, are trying to actually address things that are seeing these large fluctuations,” Rodriguez said. “I could point out so many more things other than cars being stolen like homelessness, like all these other things worth our attention, but we don’t give it that energy.”
San Marcos City Council Member Saul Gonzales asked how this would be paid for when the grant was complete, and Standridge replied that they could apply for another grant. The grant is $177,401, requiring a $35,480 match from the city.
