A Message to TMPA and CLEAT Members on Re-unification

By Larry Watts, CLEAT Chief of Staff and Kevin Lawrence, TMPA Deputy Executive Director

While this article is addressed to the respective membership of CLEAT and TMPA, in reality it is a message to the entire Texas law enforcement community. A recent message posted on both organizations’ websites announced that discussions between TMPA and CLEAT have begun to consider re-unification of the two organizations.

Many in the Texas law enforcement community are not familiar with our history, therefore, are unaware that CLEAT was created out of an internal disagreement within TMPA that occurred in the mid 1970’s. Prior to this split, TMPA was the only state-wide voice for Texas law enforcement officers since its inception in 1950. In both 1979 and 1999 attempts were made to discuss bringing the two organizations back together but both failed for a variety of reasons.

For the last twenty years, the co-authors of this article have maintained a friendly relationship, even as the rivalry of our two organizations continued and at various times escalated. Not having had a conversation in quite some time, we decided to visit over lunch. As you might imagine, with two old cops involved, our conversation included some good natured jabs at one another and even more discussion about years gone by and opportunities missed.

At some point during that longer than intended lunch meeting, we discussed the shame that our two organizations have spent so much time, energy and resources competing with each other; when that effort could have been spent better representing our members and competing with those persons and organizations whose goal is to weaken Texas law enforcement. A comment was made that we both believed if all of our CLEAT and TMPA members were invited to a huge arena and asked if their interests would be better served by a single unified organization that the vast majority would answer with a resounding YES! This, of course, led us to the question: If we are both convinced that our members would find a way to work together, why can’t the leadership of both organizations do the same?

After discussion with both our Executive Directors and Boards of Directors; we found that there was enough common ground to begin serious discussions about re-unification. While it would be premature and presumptive of both of us to speculate on what the outcome will be; we want to make sure we attempt to keep you informed about how these talks began and how they progress. The two of us and the committees that were appointed from both TMPA and CLEAT have adopted a guiding principle during these talks to consider what is best for Texas law enforcement officers during these discussions. We hope to continue to bring good news as the process moves forward.