"Kop Busters" in Odessa, TX

reply to post by Tiloke


1. Here's a revealing article I turned up while searching for evidence of the helicopter which you dispute the very existence of, and which says quite a bit about the state of things in the neighborhood of Odessa vis-a-vis drug enforcement cops. www.texasobserver.org...

2. The biography of Bill Bushing makes it clear that Odessa police have had a helicopter section since at least 1979. www.pegasusnews.com...

In 1979, Rushing moved to Odessa where he accepted a position as corporal patrol for the K-9 Unit with the Odessa Police Department. His promotions included sergeant, IAD, CID, K-9, Helicopter Section, Patrol; captain, Internal Affairs; and deputy chief, Patrol Service Bureau.

3. This report from the Texas Department of Safety indicates that the police in odessa had aircraft support at least as late as 2006.


Christ in a dumptruck, if you don't know what Google is, how did you get online to begin with?

Originally posted by Tiloke

Originally posted by RFBurns
I dont know where one poster thinks there are only 90,000 people in Odessa, but your WAY off of even being close.

Odessa, including WEST Odessa combined is well over 125,000.

Really? Not according to EVERY piece of information I could find.

Odessa's population was 90,943 at the 2000 Census, with a 2005 census population estimated projection of 93,546.

And you know what else...they have THREE police choppers, and that was back in 2006 when I lived there. They may have more than that now.

Really? Their website goes into detail about their patrol divisions, SWAT teams, K-9 units and even their animal control units, but there is not one single peep about an air unit.
www.odessapd.com...

I suppose anyone or any buisness with an electric bill over 80 bucks could be considered growing pot then and the entire city would be under a siege.

Now who has no idea what they are talking about? Not "any business with a bill over 80 bucks" could be considered growing pot. The house that has a 2000 watt jump that lasts exactly 12 hours every day for 2 months could be though. Without going into too much detail, there are very specific lighting conditions you need to strictly maintain if you are growing pot. It is THOSE PATTERNS that they are looking for, not the total amount of your bill. Your argument here is completely invalid.

TXU/Atmos does NOT require any contract to provide utility to anyone. You simply call them up, tell them where you need service, they charge a deposit, usually around 120 bucks, and unless the power is already on at the place where you need it, it usually takes less than 2 days for them to go out there and plug in the meter. Most of the time, the power is already on, it just gets put into your name when you request the service.

Really? I found this on your own power companies site;

It is important for to be a well informed consumer so if a problem arises you know what steps to take to protect yourself, so make sure to read all paperwork that you receive from your energy company. The Terms of Service will detail fees, contract terms, billing and payment information, credit and deposit policies and cancellation of services. The Your Rights as a Customer disclosure will outline financial assistance options, slamming, cramming, disconnection and restoration of service, complaint resolution and contact information.

www.electricitytexas.com...

So that argument is untrue, pure and simple. Here in Denver there is a cell phone company called Cricket. In their ads they say you don't have to sign anything, and you don't. However, their is still a contract between the company and the customers. The customers still have to pay their bills if they want a phone and abide by the companies terms and conditions. The fact that he is using the phone and that they are letting him constitutes a legal agreement, just like the power companies, and all with no actual contracts signed.

There are over 20 different customer agreements with 4 appendixes listed on my power companies website. I am expected to abide by the terms set forth in those agreements, even if I havn't even heard of them.

Sheesh, I love how some people who dont even live there, or have ever lived there, try to spout their BS and think they know what the heck they are talking about. Ive smelled better foul air from a west texas vulture than this!!!!

Cheers!!!!

And I love how apparently people who have lived there can't even be bothered to check their facts before attempting to berate another member.




P.S. did you notice how I avoided phrases that are only used to insult and belittle and add nothing to the thread like "Spout their BS". I also did it without having to compare you to a vulture fart, try to do the same.



[edit on 8-12-2008 by Tiloke]

Perhaps your not aware of the fact that the police department is not going to publish every bit of information so as to let those they are after know what they got, when they do things and why. I should point out, that not only does the Odessa PD have a helicopter, but the Texas Dept of Public Safety (state police) office in Odessa also has one, as does the Ector County Sherrif's Office. Thats 3 my friend....3 operating out of Odessa Tx.
Actually there are 4 helicopters but I am not counting the Medical Center Hospital's helicopter since its not a police/state police/sherrif unit. But they have been known to get called in a time or two on some instances.

Population dispute.

Where is your count for West Odessa???? If you look at Google map for Odessa, you will find there are TWO sections to Odessa. The main city Odessa, and West Odessa! Your reference only points to Odessa proper. When the city of Odessa does a census, that census is not sent to the west Odessa residents. The west Odessa residents do their own census count and that goes to the state statistics burau in Austin seperatley from Odessa's count and west Odessa doesnt do a count every single year.

Ok lets do the math for the year 2000.

Taking your found figure for Odessa itself, at 90,943, and taking the West Odessa count for 2000, which can be found HERE at 17,779, simple addition comes to 108,772.

Lets look at the available 2007 census for west Odessa, which can be found HERE at 19,225. Adding that to the 2005 number for Odessa proper of 93,546 it adds up to 112,771. If we add the 2006 number for Odessa proper at 95,163 found HERE and the number from 2007 for west odessa of 19,225 it comes out to 114,338. Since the census stats for the year 2006 are not availablefor west Odessa, we can come close to figure that the population was aproximately 113,000 give or take in the year 2006. So I was off a bit, but not that much to only come to the 93,546 you reference because you only noted Odessa itself.

Power company dispute.

Maybe you should use the right website url for the power company issue. Its www.txu.com.... That might help!

Anyway this has been fun and somewhat of a mute point since the issue and thread is about an organization that seeks out corrupt activities by the police department. Not all of the cops there are bad, I know a few of them and they are good friends and good cops. There are some bad ones tho, and some bad ones in the sherrif's department as well as in the state pd.

This instance is not the first time Kop Busters has busted the pd in doing dirty deeds. As I pointed out earlier, they should have done a bit more investigative work first. Perhaps it was the drug task force chief who messed up and not necessarily the police officers. Or maybe it was the organization known as the Permian Basin Drug Task Force that goofed.

Either way, they got busted!!

Have a nice day!



Cheers!!!!


[edit on 9-12-2008 by RFBurns]

i love this thread, this is one of the best threads on ats in my opinion in quite some time

not because of the topic

not because of the knowledge being given

but by the way ats members are conducting themselves

ats has really stepped up here in this thread and i love it

i love the moderators that are setting great examples and the rest of the ats members on here are doing great jobs or debunking false statements and just doing a great job of providing proof and fact based statements


i think everything has been addressed perfectly here and it really seems this is a situation where it is irrefutable that the cops screwed up


haha ats would make a great legal team as far as this thread goes


really looking forward to further situations like this happening in other police jurisdictions around the country

Not sure if it matters here or not...

But the FLDS raid in San Angelo is just about 1.5 hours drive from Midland/Odessa. Odessa is a town in and of itself....but if you know anything about the area, it is always preceded by "Midland/", as they are "sister cities". They sit about 15 miles from each other, and both have populations in the 100k range.

Those police forces are loaded. They have TONS of solid weaponry and investigative equipment. Here is a picture from the FLDS raid in San Angelo. Looks like Sheriff Gary Painter sent over one of his APC's:




We are not talking about a sleepy little town here with a bunch of Barney Fife's. This is the front in the supposed "War on Drugs", and the local police are outfitted with some sweet weapons to fight the "War".

One more thing for football fans....this is the same Odessa, Tx that the Permian Panthers are from ("Friday Night Lights").

Of course we'd make a great legal team- we're a bunch of armchair law professors. At least that's the rumor I heard.

I'd like to share a little gem from one of the links I presented previously for those who don't like having to navigate around too much.
I know that there are a lot of people out there who like to unjustly villify the police and over-state minor or aberrant incidents, as my friend and fellow Marine Semperfortis would probably attest from his experience as a narcotics officer, so I understand skepticism on this matter. You really do have to check the track record to appreciate how completely and absurdly wrong things have gone with drug enforcement in the Odessa area.

As one of the locals told us earlier, Odessa used to get its FLIR searching done by the Permian Basin Drug Task Force. They also had access to temporarily deputized professional mercinaries. But that task force no longer exists. Why you might ask?

Painter's Permian Basin Drug Task Force was the biggest, covering a fifteen-county swath of the Trans-Pecos from Andrews to the border. It was also the most controversial. Along with the drug busts that made Gary Painter a star on the local evening news, came persistent questions about corruption: theft of confiscated drug money, missing evidence from the drug vault, political payoffs. A 1991 grand jury investigation resulted in indictments against Hal Upchurch, a D.A. in Ward County who worked closely with the task force, and Ronald Tucker, one of Painter's many "temporary deputies," underworld operatives who helped him make drug cases across the state.

Then, in June of 1998, after a lengthy investigation by state and federal authorities of allegations ranging from evidence tampering and fraudulent reports to bribery and theft, the governor's office cut off funds to the Permian Basin task force.

But never you worry, the Midland County Sheriff's Department formed a new task force before the old one was even dead, and quickly transitioned it from a terrorism task force to a drug task force when things went wrong for the PBDTF. So Odessa still has access to the same resources from the very same Sheriff. And the new task force means business. They train hard for every contingency. They train to make sure that when they commit reckless homicide, it is done in an orderly, proficient military manner. They even practice for the eventuality that they may have to shoot a reporter in the back (Talley, mentioned below, being the reporter). Heck they even have an armored personel carrier, just in case they ever have to invade Mexico to find a fake crime to hurt people over (I'm not pulling this out of thin air- Sheriff Painter loves publicity and has even managed to discover a quote unquote "terrorist training camp" across the border... which the feds looked at and then laughed at him over).

"They all went into the brush with their camouflage gear and their knives and their paintball guns," Talley recalls. "And all of the sudden people came out of nowhere. They knew who I was and what I was doing there, but I put my hands up just to act like I was a bad guy." He must have played his part too well. "They opened up the car door, threw me on the ground, and stood on me for about five minutes," Talley said. In a real drug bust, it could have been worse. "When I stood back up, I looked where my head was in the back window and there was a paintball [splat] there. I said, 'You guys saw me put my hands up.' And one of the kids said, 'Well, you know in a situation like that we have to take out everybody.'"

Last but not least, the population of Odessa and West Odessa combined is 130,000. The city straddles the Ector-Midland county line- West Odessa being in Ector County and Odessa being in Midland, which is why some people are having a hard time finding the full figure in one easy to understand place.

reply to post by The Vagabond


Now you know a little more about where i live.

Big Spring is about 25-30k people, and sits about 30 miles from Midland. Our leaders are as much on the take as theirs, and often in cahoots.

Our mayor was recalled, and then re-elected within a 6 month span. No one i know voted for the guy. Hmmm...go figure.

Now that I am older, i just put my head down and try to stay under the radar locally. My mother (who is a saint in the eyes of hundreds in the Permian Basin) even agrees, and does not like LEO in any form or fashion.

In my younger days, i knew quite a few of the drug dealers. I grew up around them, and you just kind of know everyone in a small town like this. They only ones who do business are the ones that are allowed to by the LEO. Big Springs top drug dealer has lived in the same house for 20 years. Right next door to a deputy. You think they don't know what he is doing?

Last year the Latin Kings moved in and tried to take over his area. The cops ran the Latin Kings out of town, protecting him. I think they all messed their pants when a federal agent showed up to bust one of this guys brothers. None of the LEO's even knew the Feds were in town. They were all PO'd about it.

Love this post, finally.. crooked cops are exposed. Now they want to press charges because they've been duped. Ha ha ha ha hilarious. Wasted money taxpayer money with false charges. There are cops like this everywhere. Lie to convict is their motto.

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
Not sure if it matters here or not...

But the FLDS raid in San Angelo is just about 1.5 hours drive from Midland/Odessa. Odessa is a town in and of itself....but if you know anything about the area, it is always preceded by "Midland/", as they are "sister cities". They sit about 15 miles from each other, and both have populations in the 100k range.

Those police forces are loaded. They have TONS of solid weaponry and investigative equipment. Here is a picture from the FLDS raid in San Angelo. Looks like Sheriff Gary Painter sent over one of his APC's:




We are not talking about a sleepy little town here with a bunch of Barney Fife's. This is the front in the supposed "War on Drugs", and the local police are outfitted with some sweet weapons to fight the "War".

One more thing for football fans....this is the same Odessa, Tx that the Permian Panthers are from ("Friday Night Lights").

Thats exactly right! There is a obelisk in the median on state road 191 which runs between Midland and Odessa, right at the Ector and Midland county line. On the Odessa side, it reads "Odessa" and on the Midland side it reads "Midland" and on the north and south sides each, it reads "Midessa-Friendship". About 20 or so years ago, the two cities were considering combining both into one large city. But the preference of the citizens of both cities wanted it to remain seperate, not because they didnt like the idea, but because in a sense, Midland/Odessa is a smaller model of the Dallas/Ft.Worth cities. The people wanted to keep that idea intact, thus the obelisk was built and placed at the point where both county lines meet. It is about 2 miles west of state hwy 1788 and about 3 miles north of the Midland Int. Airport.

Ahh the Permian Panthers aka "MOJO". A great football team! Let me clarify a few things about the movie "Friday Night Lights"...not the tv series.

Most of the things in that movie are historically correct. There are a few things that are pure Hollywood dramatics. But of course all movies have to have some dramatics to them or they would be rather boaring!

Midland is where the little girl "Jessica McClure" fell into the abandoned water well. I was working as an engineer at KMID "Big 2" Ch 2, the ABC affiliate tv station during that time. I drove the station's live truck unit out to the location, and was there during the first 24 hours. If anyone remembers the ABC tv special of that incident, and remembers seeing the scene where there is a guy on top of a news van pointing a microwave stick antenna, that was ME. My 15 seconds of tv fame! The news reporter who also was with me on that live shot, also played his part in the tv show.

The recent series "Black Gold" on Court TV, I have a good friend who is one of the drillers on that show. Wayne. I have known him for years and remember the day he first went into the oil field industry as a roughneck. He tired to convince me to go into the field too, about a year later I did. But after about 2 years of smelling like crude and stinking up the house, my lady convinced me to get back into broadcast engineering, was much cleaner and less smell.

Its a great area to live in, diverse and if you like the warm climate, perfect for almost year round outdoor Texas styel BBQ's! Not only do I miss all my friends and family there, I think the biggest thing I miss is them big Chuck Wagon Gang BBQ's at the Ector County Coliseum during the fair. YUM!!!!

It wasnt always that bad with the cops and sherrif's out there. However shortly after Gary Painter went into office, things started to go crazy. At first he seemed like an honest fella but about a year after being the front seat of the ECSO, thats when it started to get out of line.

But with the organization like Kop Busters, things were slowly getting a good house cleaning and rid of the rats. And with this latest success, perhaps the authorities there will come to realize that you "Don't Mess With Texans"!!!


Long live the Lone Star State!!




Cheers!!!!


[edit on 10-12-2008 by RFBurns]

I just got on the site with no problems and watched all of the videos.
These guys and gals are good. They need our support and I think it could be used effectively all over the country.

And you could always forward the info to the FBI and US attorney.
And there is always the local county grand jury too.

The unknownuser

So, just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, in the future, if I want a thread to calm WAY down, all I've got to do is talk about Texas Highschool Football, and everyone will go their separate ways?

reply to post by The Vagabond


Actually no, its the re-confirmation you made on not only the population, but yes the football too!

Odessa is not in Midland county tho. It is at the edge of it. The extreme east part of the city, which only a fraction of it, actually crosses over into Midland county along Hwy 80/Buisness 20. That would equate to about almost 1 and 1/2 miles worth. Ector county map and county outline HERE in PDF format. The county line is the orange line on the right of the PDF map.

Now that further development is occuring on the north-east side of the city (Odessa), that will extend the city limit line in that area closer to the county line too. Just 3 years ago, that part of the area was flat desert, now it is abundant with high priced homes that range anywhere from the 2 mil price tag and above.

Who knows, they may re-examine the combining of the two cities, but I dont think the people in both cities really want that. Both cities have made identities of their own and have both made their own mark in the history book of Texas. Both populations would want to keep it that way.



Cheers!!!!

[edit on 17-12-2008 by RFBurns]

Wow, this is an educational thread. I'm learning so much legal text/legal principles that I'm going to try to see if I can pass the bar exam.

Originally posted by The Vagabond
So, just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, in the future, if I want a thread to calm WAY down, all I've got to do is talk about Texas Highschool Football, and everyone will go their separate ways?

unless you are talkin about it with West Texans.

reply to post by RFBurns


The two cities won't merge. You work in Midland, party in Odessa. That is just the way it is.

BTW, here is a copy of the affadavit:

sleepless.blogs.com...

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


The other way around works too! Cept in Midland there are more fancy trucks and in Odessa there are those old beat up ones that give the city its visual impact.

Remember the FNL movie? At least it had that part historically correct!



Cheers!!!!

wow...all sorts of banter and speculation on this subject before the affidavit for the search warrant was posted...Now hardly a word. If you can't see that the cops were obviously baited by someone who knew exactly how to bait them then you're blind.

Don't misunderstand my intentions here. I am not saying that there are no bad cops in Odessa (or elsewhere for that matter). I'm just saying that this case definately isn't an aggregious case of abuse of power.

The systems says you need "probable cause" not cold hard proof a a crime to get a warrant. Clearly they were given probable cause.

That being said, I personally would have done a few things different before going forward with this warrant. And yes, I have written more than one search warrant. But, it looks like this court has got a little laxed on it's standards for PC there. But again, they were baited PERFECTLY...

And again, don't assume all of the police are dirty. They are just doing a job. The system is what's broken.

Good for KopBusters!

But I'm calling BS on part of the story.

these Kop Busters had to have been doing something to attract attention. There is no way flir or cops can detect one single "grow light's" heat coming from the house.

First of all the heat the flir would pick up would be the heat of the air that is warming the roof of said home. that hot air generated from the light will create a warm patch on the roof. that is if you are using some HPS bulb in your attic or something. but even then gee there are a lot of heat sources in peoples attics. there are plenty or reasons there can be a spot on the roof that is warmer than others. multiple lights causing heat patterns that look like every few feet there is something generating heat will show up possibly on flir looking down onto somebodies roof, and again only if they are all crammed up in the attic. flir really just picks up suspicious heat plumes leaving the house. usually from under eves where the exhaust is vented from the light reflector hood. one light isn't going to do any of the stuff that could be noticed.

these guys were doing something else to get attention from the authorities. one light isn't going to be suspicious on an electric bill either. heck most peoples TV's and entertainment suites use more electricity. the DWP won't see anything suspicious about your electric bill going up 15 dollars a billing cycle.

People who use lots of power bypass the meter and generally escape detection that way too.

SO I call BS on this story unfolding exactly the way the KopBusters claim. They did something besides operate a 400 what light or whatever to get the cops involved.

Originally posted by BASSPLYR
Good for KopBusters!

But I'm calling BS on part of the story.

these Kop Busters had to have been doing something to attract attention. There is no way flir or cops can detect one single "grow light's" heat coming from the house.

First of all the heat the flir would pick up would be the heat of the air that is warming the roof of said home. that hot air generated from the light will create a warm patch on the roof. that is if you are using some HPS bulb in your attic or something. but even then gee there are a lot of heat sources in peoples attics. there are plenty or reasons there can be a spot on the roof that is warmer than others. multiple lights causing heat patterns that look like every few feet there is something generating heat will show up possibly on flir looking down onto somebodies roof, and again only if they are all crammed up in the attic. flir really just picks up suspicious heat plumes leaving the house. usually from under eves where the exhaust is vented from the light reflector hood. one light isn't going to do any of the stuff that could be noticed.

these guys were doing something else to get attention from the authorities. one light isn't going to be suspicious on an electric bill either. heck most peoples TV's and entertainment suites use more electricity. the DWP won't see anything suspicious about your electric bill going up 15 dollars a billing cycle.

People who use lots of power bypass the meter and generally escape detection that way too.

SO I call BS on this story unfolding exactly the way the KopBusters claim. They did something besides operate a 400 what light or whatever to get the cops involved.

Though you are right about the FLIR, I think you are wrong about actual consumption. TV's and other things consume much less than the standard 1000w HPS bulb. But you are right when saying that one is not enough to raise a power flag. Depending on where you live and your electric rates, one light should add between 30-50$ to your bill per cycle.

You could run both your plasma tv and your computer 24 hours a day for 2 months, they would consume less power than your one HPS light would running only 12 hours a day.

Back to FLIR, if anyone wants to learn about FLIR and how its used, watch a video made by the SAME Guy who busted the cops in Odessa.

www.youtube.com...

[edit on 6-1-2009 by king9072]

Notice how the annonymous letter contains little narcotics officer obsessions- a tear in the foil showing bright light, a heat vent, an unlicensed car in the driveway- the kind of stuff cops could see, write themselves an annonymous letter about, verify, and use to turn the accusations of an annonymous jilted woman into reliable probable cause.

The letter was written by someone who has boned up on probable cause rules and wanted to be sure it was airtight- either KopBusters or the Cops, in my opinion.

I lean slightly towards KopBusters on that one, reason being that the cops would have no reason to include info that they don't know to be true that doesn't affect their warrant (suspect being there at all times) but KopBusters would have reason to try and encourage an immediate raid without too much surveillance time taken first.

Either way, it is telling that a judge will accept not merely heresay (which we've covered as legal with caveats earlier) but accept annonymous hearsay from someone who has disclosed a motive to lie.