Grapeland PD Promotes Moore

By Sarah Naron

Messenger Reporter

GRAPELAND – A ceremony was held in recognition of the promotion of Grapeland Police Department Officer Tyler Moore to Corporal by Lieutenant Ronnie Howell during the regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Grapeland City Council held Tuesday, Dec. 12,

“He came to us about a year ago now from Hall County, Georgia Sheriff’s Office,” explained Lieutenant Howell. “He was a lieutenant for that department. He’s brought with him a lot of help to our department – a lot of wisdom, a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge,” Lieutenant Howell said. “I’m just glad we can promote him and make him a supervisor over here. He’s helped me immensely.”

Moore’s new badge was pinned to him by his wife, Leslie. The couple’s daughter, Mackenzie, was also in attendance at the meeting.

Howell also provided the council with an update on the activities of the department’s police dog at the request of a council member.

“I’ve got everything that we’ve been finding with the dog in the office in here,” Howell said. “I’ve got a whole box full of stuff. We have a lot of paraphernalia in there.”

Howell informed the council of a call recently received by the department from a sheriff’s office near Lubbock.

“Carly (Tullis, Grapeland PD Canine Officer) is a member of some kind of dog group,” he explained. “They have contacted her and donated the whole insert that goes inside the Tahoe – the metal insert with the bars so the dog can be separate from a passenger or prisoner.”

The insert includes a heat system – a requirement of the State of Texas for police departments which utilize police dogs – that will pop open the doors of the patrol car, set off alarms, and send notifications to the human officers’ phones in the event that the dog is overheating.

Howell said he will find out who was responsible for the donation.

“We’re going to send them a big thank you,” Howell said.

An update was also provided regarding a runaway juvenile.

Howell also reported the amount of traffic stops executed by the department this month was at a high for the year.

“The reason we had a high is, we’ve had three fatalities on this bypass this year,” he explained. “And we’ve had in the double digits of traffic accidents out there.

“We don’t want people dying over the holidays; we definitely don’t want people in the hospital or anything like that,” Lieutenant Howell pointed out. “So, we’re trying to stop them as much as we can.”

Sarah Naron may be reached via email at [email protected].