SAN ANTONIO — Two occasions of driving unsafely while responding to high-priority calls.
Five cases of not activating his body worn camera.
Dozens of instances of not turning on his video recording technology.
More than 100 occasions of speeding—sometimes with a newly arrested person in the car with him.
Suspension records filed by the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) say one of their officers was found to have done all of that in the span of nearly seven weeks last summer, the result of an internal investigation into what the department called “insubordinate” behavior by Officer Elliott E. Torres.
The records say Torres “failed to obey a lawful order given to him by his supervisor,” referring to when he was warned by a sergeant on July 27, 2024, to “obey the speed limits” and that his “driving would be monitored and audited.” Two audits in August and the subsequent investigation yielded he broke SAPD policy dozens of times, to the point that he “brought reproach and discredit on himself and the San Antonio Police Department.”
His discipline: a 45-day, unpaid suspension from the department.
The findings
SAPD’s investigation into Torres’ behavior behind the wheel and while responding to calls was initiated when two audits taken two days apart in August found that he didn’t switch on his vehicle’s Mobile Recording Device and drove at “excessive speeds” on numerous occasions.
The investigation focused on the period of June 28, 2024, to Aug. 14, 2024—a span of time for which Torres’ Automatic Vehicle Locations records were pulled and reviewed.
Those reviews ultimately found Torres violated SAPD policy more than 250 times, records show, although it’s unclear on exactly how many calls for service he broke the rules due to potential overlap of the violations.
Torres’ most common offense in that roughly seven-week span was speeding. Per SAPD policy, officers aren’t allowed to drive more than 10 miles over the speed limit while responding to more urgent Code-2 and Code-3 calls for police service—yet Torres did so 13 times during Code-2 calls and “engaged in unsafe driving actions” while responding to two Code-3 calls.
According to suspension records, he also drove at excessive speeds during 97 lower-priority Code-1 calls. Meanwhile, Torres was also found to have “engaged in excessive speeds when not assigned to any incidents on 23 separate days” last summer.
Sometimes, SAPD found, Torres had an arrestee with someone in the patrol unit with him. Between June 30 and July 15 of last year, records say, the officer on four different occasions sped while taking “a male prisoner” to the magistrate’s office or the Bexar County jail. In one of those instances, he was allegedly driving 89 mph in a 65 mph zone; another time, records say, he was going 14 miles over in a 65 mph zone on the highway.
And in one instance, on June 30, records say Torres was driving 25 mph over the speed limit after he “failed to seat belt the prisoner” in his unit.
It’s not clear if Torres had an SAPD partner with him in the car for any of these policy violations.
In numerous other instances, records say, Torres broke SAPD protocol when he didn’t come to a complete stop at traffic lights; “failed to continuously use emergency lights and sirens” while responding to calls; delayed turning on or outright didn’t activate his video recording system; and didn’t switch on or delayed switching on his body camera on nine different occasions between July 6 and Aug. 12 of last year.
Torres’ explanation
Asked in August why he didn’t activate his “Mobile Recording Device,” Torres seemed to understand he was not following department rules.
“I was under the impression that the above listed calls required a quick response,” he told his SAPD superiors, according to suspension records. “And the only way I could accomplish this, without getting into further trouble, was by not activating the digital media evidence until I contacted persons involved or arrived at the locations.”
The disciplinary records concluded that “Officer Torres’ actions render his continuance in office detrimental to effective law enforcement and the needs of the San Antonio Police Department.” They also said that “the law and sound community expectations recognize that there is good cause for depriving Officer Torres of his position.”
Torres instead agreed to serve the 45-day suspension from the job; that punishment started Feb. 26 and Torres will be eligible to return to work on April 12.