Eagle Lake again without a police chief
Frank Briscoe addresses the Eagle Lake City Council last Oct. 23 after being appointed the city's police chief.
Citizen | Vince Leibowitz
The city of Eagle Lake is once again without a police chief after the abrupt resignation of Chief Frank Briscoe this afternoon.
City Manager Gary Broz confirmed that Briscoe resigned this afternoon. Briscoe also confirmed he had stepped down from the position.
Broz said he has not yet named an interim chief of police.
Neither Broz nor Briscoe had additional comment Friday afternoon.
Briscoe was appointed chief on Oct. 23 by Broz. His first day on the job was Nov. 1.
Briscoe, an Eagle Lake native, Rice Consolidated High School graduate, and longtime deputy Harris County Constable for Precinct 5 and an officer for the Houston Police Department.
BACKGROUND
Briscoe’s appointment capped off a nearly ten-month-long saga of personnel difficulties for the city of Eagle Lake that began with the appointment retirement of former city manager Sylvia Rucka last January and ultimately resulted in the departure of former Eagle Lake Police Chief David Freeman, and designates for both the city manager and police chief position pulling their names from consideration.
Freeman resigned in the spring after the council voted to appoint Colorado County Emergency Management Coordinator Chuck Rogers as city manager on a 3-2 vote. Freeman, who was one of three finalists for the post, said he believed he’d lost the confidence of the council when he tendered his resignation last spring.
Gary Broz, the current city manager, was appointed after Rogers removed his name from consideration for the position after controversial social media posts some in the community believed were racist came to light this past summer.
Last September, Broze appointed Curtiss Pope, a Texas City police sergeant to the position, but Pope withdrew his name from consideration as the appointee hours after The Citizen contacted the city with questions concerning allegations, more than a decade old, of sexual assault of a child. The allegations were raised in civil litigation, and Pope was never criminally charged in connection with the incident and ultimately sued the people making the allegations.
The Eagle Lake City Council meets on Tuesday to swear in one new member and two recently re-elected council members. It is unclear if the item will be discussed, as the agenda for the meeting was not posted at the time this story was completed.