Internal communications within the Grapevine Police Department (GPD) obtained by The Dallas Express reveal what led the law enforcement agency to reject a gift from an area business and how local elected officials seemingly exerted political pressure and influence over that decision.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, GPD publicly refused a donation of a $1,500 gift card for pizza from Patriot Mobile, a local business that proclaims to be “America’s only Christian conservative wireless service provider.”
After initially accepting the donation on January 12, GPD tweeted a thank you message to Patriot Mobile, remarking how “blessed” the department was to have the company’s “support and encouragement.”
However, the appreciation soon turned to remorse, with GPD posting a long missive two days later on social media apologizing for accepting the donation and vowing “to do better moving forward.”
“One of our values, Dignity, ensures that we recognize the inherent worth of all persons and compels us to act toward them within a manner that conveys our understanding of that truth. It is about being respectful to ALL,” GPD wrote in its public apology.
Now, emails, texts, and other internal communications secured under state public information law give a window into what exactly happened over those two days.
First, a review of the text message correspondence between GPD staff revealed a sense of anxiety around some of the responses that the department’s initial post touting the donation had received.
Much of the discussion revolved around ways to silence the online discourse. Chief Mike Hamlin and staff exhaustively discussed everything from turning off the ability for the public to comment to removing the post about the donation to even deleting the GPD Facebook page altogether.
Amanda McNew, media manager for GPD, recommended against terminating the ability to comment or deleting the entire page, citing the likelihood of future litigation against the department on First Amendment grounds since it is a government entity.
She went further to comment, “Shutting down the pages would also stop our communication with the public, most of whom are supportive. The majority of the negative posts are from other states, countries and even bots.”
Even with McNew’s assessment that the vast majority of negative comments were not from Grapevine residents, Hamlin and others continued to weigh their options.
At one point, McNew even claimed she reached out to Judy Pal, a “crisis comm instructor” with the FBI, for guidance on navigating the pizza donation issue.
Local elected officials also weighed in with Grapevine city staff and Hamlin.
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Trustee Becky St. John texted Grapevine City Manager Bruno Rumbelow complaining about the Patriot Mobile donation and calling the integrity of GPD officers into question.
St. John accused GPD of failing to investigate alleged complaints against Patriot Mobile and insinuated that the pizza donation was to blame.
“I know several complaints were filed; it looks rather obvious now why none got attention from the DA,” St. John texted. “This is terrible, Bruno.”
She went on to lament, “I have extremely high regard for Chief Hamlin. But I’m now very concerned about other people in that building.”
Rumbelow replied, thanking St. John and letting her know they were “working on it.”
Grapevine Mayor Pro Tem Darlene Freed texted Hamlin directly to bring attention to the negative reactions online, claiming that the city council was also “getting calls and texts” on the matter.
In these communications, Hamlin discussed openly with staff exactly what to do with the pizza donation. At times he suggested giving it back to Patriot Mobile, but there was also significant discussion about giving it to another organization.
In one such exchange, after it was suggested that the donation be re-donated to another group, Hamlin asked, “to whom?”
A staff member responded, “VAST,” — a local after-school program — “Or an lgbtq+ group.”
Hamlin replied, “That’s an idea.”
As the internal debate on how to respond continued, in one text exchange, a GPD employee said to Assistant Chief of Police Tim Hall that the department had “aligned ourselves with a hate group” and called for a change in their donation policy.
Hall did not challenge the claim but responded by asking if the United States government had formally recognized Patriot Mobile as a hate group.
“Fair. Not that I know of,” the employee responded.
And while Hamlin and his senior team agonized over how to handle the situation, rank-and-file officers also made their feelings known.
One email to Hamlin from Pedro Soltero, a GPD patrol sergeant, was extremely pointed.
Noting “several officers” were apparently uncomfortable with the donation, Soltero claimed the Christian company “has been associated with numerous organizations that do not share the same values that [GPD] does.”
“Patriot Mobile has been known as an anti-women, anti-LBGQT+, and anti-minority organization,” Soltero wrote.
“Our organization should provide an inclusive and comfortable atmosphere to all our employees and the diverse community we serve regardless of political views, the color of our skin, or sexual orientation,” he continued.
As GPD ambled towards its desired response and course of action, City Manager Rumbelow shared GPD’s proposed apology with Mayor Pro Tem Freed.
Freed later reached out to express her approval of its contents and appreciation for the approach.
GCISD Trustee Shannon Braun commented on what the information revealed:
“I am disappointed that a member of our GCISD board, Becky St. John, would use her position to put political pressure on the City Manager and make accusations against our police officers and District Attorney — all over a pizza donation. This is not the first time that Trustee St. John has acted in a unprofessional manner.”
Tammie Grantham, a 35-year Grapevine resident and member of GCISD Parents, made the public information request on this issue and spoke to The Dallas Express on her reading of its contents.
“It was obvious that there was more to the story than we were told by the Grapevine PD. The open records request I filed revealed a shocking contempt for local business owners and Christians who wanted to honor the police that sacrificially serve our community,” Grantham said.
“City staff labeled a Christian company a ‘hate group’ and talked about passing the gift along to an LGBTQ+ group as some sort of sad joke at Patriot Mobile’s expense,” she continued.
Grantham also expressed surprise that a local school board trustee, Becky St. John, would insert herself into the situation by reaching out to the city manager directly and making accusations against the integrity of GPD, its officers, and the district attorney.
In conclusion, Grantham said, “City staff shouldn’t be conspiring against our community — that’s what this looks like to me.”
The Dallas Express reached out to Chief Hamlin, Mayor Pro Tem Freed, and Trustee St. John for comment, but as of the writing of this article, none had responded.
Note: This article was updated on February 10 at 9 a.m. to include comment from Braun.
