There are day-to-day changes at the Balch Springs Police Department after a fatal shooting involving one of its officers.
Investigators with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s office continue their probe into the incident that left 15-year-old Jordan Edwards dead.
The accused officer, Roy Oliver, has been terminated from the department and Edwards’ family is calling for justice.
The department’s Internal Affairs Unit is currently interviewing officers while collecting and watching hours of video from the night of the incident.
“Not only do we have body cameras that the officers have on their body, but we also have to pull in-car video from the vehicles that were at the scene,” Ofc. Pedro Gonzalez said.
As this investigation continues, so does the work.
“We’re taking care of the community,” Gonzalez said. “We’re still taking calls.”
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At the police station, there is still a steady line of people walking through the front door.
“I just came to take care of a traffic ticket,” Daisy Castillo said.
Castillo, like many in the region, has followed this story closely and she said she wants to see justice.
“For him to pay with prison. That would be justice,” she said.
Castillo was surprised the department severed its ties with Oliver so quickly.
“Because on other cases [police] didn’t really do anything about it,” she said “They didn’t move so quickly.”
Since the incident officers have faced anger.
“We’ve been getting threats to our work e-mails. They are telling us they are going to publish our residencies; which puts our families at risk,” Gonzalez said. “A lot of officers are taking precautions to make sure that not only they are safe, but also their families.”
Officers have changed their passwords for fear of hacking and they are changing their operating habits.
“We are now riding two-man on certain calls where we normally don’t,” Gonzalez said.
Police could not give a timetable of when they expect to wrap up their internal investigation, but investigators are still looking for any witnesses to come forward.
