Has anyone heard about The Chicano Squad? Because we have a first look at this pioneering group.
For those who haven’t heard of this historic and pivotal point in Houston’s policing, A&E’s must-see two-night documentary, The Chicano Squad, will deliver on all the riveting details in a Labor Day event tailor-made for true crime and crime documentary aficionados.
We were incredibly fortunate enough to get an exclusive and extensive sneak peek at the incredible first-hand account of Houston’s first all-Latino police squad.
The Chicano Squad’s Origins Were Due to Houston’s Lack of Community Policing
Policing has long since been a topic of discussion (and heated debate) as society continues to evolve and crimefighting struggles to keep up.
So many nuanced conversations surround law enforcement and those who enforce the law’s relationship with society at large and individual communities.
Houston, like any other city, historically faced issues when it came to disproportionate crime rates amongst some communities and a fraught relationship between disenfranchised communities and the police who serve them.
The Chicano Squad is a documentary that examines the first-hand account of Houston’s first all-Latin specialized unit.
It emerged a hair before the 1980s and spent the next three decades crime-fighting on behalf of a wary community that often fell through the cracks.
Often, at the source of discussions regarding policing styles in America is a call for stronger community policing, and The Chicano Squad is the epitome of this.
Tensions Between Police and the Latino Community Were a Powder Keg
In 1979, Houston, Texas, saw an alarmingly high homicide rate amongst its Latino population.
Houston actually had a high homicide rate across the board, and the city acquired the nickname of the “Murder Capital” of the Nation.
Hundreds and hundreds of cases sat open and unsolved, and one of the most significant factors to that was that many of the detectives didn’t speak Spanish, and also, Latino communities, especially those with an immigrant influence, didn’t trust law enforcement.
Decades of police brutality and police corruption in HPD led to a fraught relationship between HPD and the Latino community, with ties reaching a boiling point around the 1977 death of a war veteran, José Campos Torres, at the hands of police.
His death resulted in literal riots, seemingly shattering whatever amicable dynamic police and Houston’s Latino population could ever have.
But that’s where The Chicano Squad came into play.
The Latino Community Needed Police They Could Trust
At the insistence of patrol officer Jim Montero, HPD created a bilingual, all-Latino specialized squad and gave it a 90-day deadline to prove its capabilities in closing cases and narrowing the gap between law enforcement and the Latine community.
Six patrol officers rose to the occasion, going from regular beat cops to detectives thrown into the deep end of investigating homicides, robberies, rapes, and some of Houston’s most heinous and major crimes.
If they didn’t prove themselves in a timely fashion, the unit would be disbanded, and each member would have to return to patrolling.
Fortunately for Jim Montero, José Selvera, Raymond Gonzales, U.P. Hernández, and Cecil Mosqueda exceeded expectations.
In three months, the newly minted Chicano Squad cleared 40 cases.
Much of their success was due to their ability to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the Latino community.
Our Sneak Peek Shows Why The Chicano Squad Was So Successful
These men fostered relationships with the community and genuinely earned their respect.
They even earned the respect of some of the criminals they pursued.
In our exclusive sneak peek, we get some insight into what The Chicano Squad was up against and why there was a pervasive distrust between the Latino community and law enforcement.
One of the members recalls stopping by a local bar to inquire about a murder that had gone unsolved for quite some time.
The bar patrons were genuinely shocked that anyone was even looking into it at all, let alone still doing so long after the crime was committed.
Not only does one of our heroic officers receive a startling amount of detail about the incident, but he is quite literally pointed in the direction of the primary suspect.
Check out the sneak peek for a gobsmacking revelation!
The two-part documentary, The Chicano Squad, airs September 2 and September 3 at 9/8c on A&E.
You can stream the following day on the A&E app.
Will you be tuning in?
Let us know in the comments below!
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