Officials: Texas DPS needs overhaul

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The Texas Department of Public Safety has found itself under increasing scrutiny since this summer's Governor's Mansion Fire. In the early morning hours of June 8, an arsonist lobbed a Molotov cocktail onto the front steps of the mansion. Seven security cameras did not work properly, and an internal review showed that DPS guards on duty did not have full training. Five months later and lots of work to overhaul a department many said has not changed in 50 years.

Anyone who has a Texas driver license, is familiar with DPS lines. Yet, a man named Jim Van Vranken can tell you many other stories about his experience with driver licenses in Texas. For 11 years, Van Vranken's collected paperwork about the Texas Department of Public Safety, all over spelling his name wrong. The people at the DPS driver license bureau just could not spell it right. A computer system built in the 1960s still in use cannot put a space between "Van" and "Vranken."

"It's been my name all my life," said Van Vranken. "When I go to get a driver's license, I don't think they should say, 'Well here is your choice. We are either going to run it together or put a hyphen in there,'" he said. Van Vranken echoes many Texans frustration at DPS driver license division. He wrote the Texas Sunset Commission in 2008 to voice his concerns.

"They are operating in the stone age," said State Representative Ruth Jones McClendon, (D) San Antonio, who sits on the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. McClendon said the frustration with DPS not only boils over with old technology and long lines at license bureaus, but especially after the Governor's mansion fire.         

"The mansion burned down, because they didn't have people there on site and didn't have the controls in place in order to protect the Governor's mansion," she said.  "Thank God the first family was not there," said McClendon. "The capitol complex, the Governor's mansion, the state offices have more than adequate security," said newly appointed Texas Public Safety Commission Chairman Allan Polunsky. Yet, Polunsky said DPS has other management troubles. He and the commission ordered nearly $1 million review of DPS in April, by Deloitte consultants, nearly two months before the fire. The review said the department has antiquated resources and management structure. It also said DPS has not asked the legislature for enough money saying the lack of resources puts its "personnel at risk," and leaves the department with high turnover rate.

"When you have a situation where an Austin police officer is making 50 percent more than a state trooper that is stationed in Austin," said Polunsky. "There is something wrong with that." Polunsky said he has already asked the legislature for higher salaries this year and a shakeup of DPS' management. "We are on board," he said. "I am going to hold his feet to the fire and expect him to make this agency turn around," said McClendon.

That is welcome news for a man who spent more than a decade of writing governors, representatives, and DPS leadership. This summer, DPS finally got Jim Van Vranken's name right, but only through a manual override. He said DPS should help people much quicker into the future. "Names should be spelled properly," said Van Vranken "It is simple."

A DPS spokeswoman said it already has a whole new computer system in the works for drivers licenses to roll out in 2009 to solve problems like that. DPS' upper management including the director and assistant director's spokeswoman said they both are reviewing the management study by Deloitte and would not make any comments until the Nov. 14 Public Safety Commission Meeting.