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Law and order in Brenham was originally kept by a City Marshall, from the early 1900's until the Police Department was
established in the late 1920's. City Marshall Burch was one of the few officers in Brenham to die in the line of duty, being
shot to death on South Park Street.
The Brenham Police Department was established in 1926, with the City Marshall becoming the Chief of Police. Newt
Humphries became the first police chief and served for the next 15 years. For 27 years, between 1930 and 1957, the
Police department was operated out of a cafe on the corner of St. Charles and Main streets. It was during this time that
if a person needed the Police Department, they would call the cafe, which operated 24 hours a day, and the waitress
would turn on a red light outside the cafe to summon the officers on patrol.
Brenham has had its share of brushes with infamous criminals. Old police folklore has it that in the 1930's
when Arthur Sternberg was a night patrolman, he found the notorious Bonnie and Clyde asleep in their car
in the downtown area of Brenham. Sternburg was appointed chief in 1940, and served for approximately 37
years, holding the position longer than any other chief in Brenham's history.
In 1941, Officer Henry Taylor became the first Brenham police officer to be killed in the
line of duty. He was struck by a car while directing traffic at an accident scene on
Horton and North Park streets.
As the city grew the police department grew in 1958 with six policemen, two night watchmen and three patrol cars.
Through the sixties and seventies, the department continued to grow, making a move out of the café into an officer
adjacent to City Hall in the downtown area.
In April of 1977, long time Chief Sternburg retired and Captain Alfred Becker was appointed chief.
During this time, the department had grown to a force of 14 officers and had formed a Detective
Division. In the early 1980's the department began both its Crime Stoppers and Community
Relations programs. Both of these have proven to be successful programs, with the Community
Relations program moving into community policing long before it became popular.
In August of 1986, Kenneth Carnes was appointed chief. During his tenure, the force grew to 26 officers with a fleet
of 19 vehicles. Carnes expanded the detective division and added a narcotics section. Many new programs, including the Youth Law
Enforcement Council, officer on Train, K-9 section, Police training, SWAT team, mounted patrol and Color Guard were established. A
fitness program for the officers was also started during this time, which gained national attention after being featured
on the television series "A Current Affair."
One of the most successful programs launched under Carnes were the BAD (Brenham Against Drugs) Operations which
began in 1986. The department has arrested and convicted over 400 drug dealers within Brenham and Washington
County since its inception. In 1994, with the help of federal funds, the two-county Independence Narcotics Task Force
was formed, with its members coming from the Brenham and Caldwell Police Departments and the Washington and
Burleson Counties' sheriff's offices. The task force has taken drug enforcement to a new level here and continues to
maintain a high arrest/conviction rate.
In 1994, Chief Carnes took a medical retirement and Lt. Jay Petrash was named interim police chief. After a 14-month search, Gary Buchanan was hired as the police chief. Buchanan was formerly the chief of police in Ft. Stockton, Tx., and had served on the Austin Police Department
for 17 years before leaving for Ft. Stockton. Chief Buchanan brought in Lt. Kenneth Maxwell to command the Narcotics Task Force. Maxwell
is a retired member of the Texas Department of Public Safety, and served with them for 27 years in the Highway Patrol and Narcotics divisions.
In December, 2003, the City Council approved the formation of the Brenham Emergency Communications Department under the direction of Maxwell. At that time, Chief Buchanan restructured the department, naming Petrash as Assistant Chief and creating two lieutenant positions.
Chief Buchanan also brought with him a vision of where the Brenham Police Department should be and worked to move the department towards that vision. He developed and implemented training on leadership skills, ethics and process thinking. Programs established under former chiefs were re-evaluated and updated to include both Chief Buchanan's vision
and community input. Under Buchanan's direction, the department centralized communications and dispatched public safety communications
for all emergency service agencies within Brenham and Washington County. The department computerized record keeping and Computer Aided Dispatching (CAD) in 1990, but Chief Buchanan took it one step further by installing a joint computer system between the police department
and Washington County Sheriff's Office. Buchanan obtained a federal grant for a school resource officer who was placed in the Brenham Independent School District. The Citizens Police Academy was reformatted and a Senior Citizens Police Academy as well as a Citizens on
Patrol (COP) program were implemented. A Motorcycle and Bike Patrol division was initiated and the department grew to a force of 29 commissioned officers, 10 communications personnel and three clerical positions.
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