SAN ANTONIO -- The state agency that oversees peace officers has recommended criminal charges and a 90-day license suspension for the police chief of the city's largest school district.
An investigation from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement found that Northside ISD Police Chief Charles Carnes failed to turn in racial profiling reports for years, even after the state repeatedly told him that he had to.
Carnes was interrogated in May and, this week, the state attorney general's office told TCOLE that they had to release the full investigation to KENS 5.
The district never received a copy and now says that Carnes was also not properly counseled on how to fix the mistakes.
Law enforcement agencies that issue one or more traffic citations a year are required by state law to submit an annual racial profiling report. From 2013 to 2015 Northside police gave out more than 950 traffic citations in the City of San Antonio alone, not counting other tickets given outside the city limits.
But when it came time to report the breakdown of tickets by race, the state contends that Northside Police Chief Charles Carnes repeatedly marked "exempt," claiming tjat his officers don't make traffic stops.
The issue was brought up to Carnes by TCOLE three years ago, but an email instructing him that he must turn in the reports was sent to the wrong address.
However, Carnes told investigators this summer that he remembered speaking on the phone to a female investigator about it.
Apparently the advice went unheeded and, under interrogation, Carnes blamed a former sergeant for the reporting errors.
Northside officials refused to make Carnes available for comment on Friday, then released a statement that reads, in part:
"NISD nor its Chief of Police is in receipt of any investigative report from TCOLE and therefore commenting on it would be inappropriate. However, it is highly irresponsible that TCOLE released this case information to a reporter without advising the school district first."
The investigator has recommended that Chief Carnes be charged with felony tampering with a government record and have his license suspended for up to 90 days.
Late Friday afternoon, a TCOLE spokeswoman said that the district wasn't sent a copy of the investigation because it never asked for one.