EPPD Officer Castro: Cosplaying as a Sergeant While Serving as Officer in Charge

A correction is in order. In a previous article, I mistakenly referred to El Paso Police Department Officer Castro (badge #3308) as a sergeant. Multiple officers quickly set the record straight.

"She's getting paid as if she were a sergeant," says an officer with the El Paso Police Department. "She's TDY and is acting as a sergeant."

She is not a sergeant. She is a regular patrol officer temporarily detailed (TDY) into a supervisory role, currently functioning as the shift's Officer in Charge (OIC), while simultaneously studying for the upcoming sergeant's promotional exam.

Placing an untrained officer into an OIC position, especially one who has never been through the formal leadership pipeline, creates serious risks for the officer, the department, and the public. The role of OIC demands seasoned judgment, mastery of policy, supervisory experience, and the ability to mentor, discipline, and make high-stakes decisions under pressure. Officer Castro, by nearly every account received, lacks these foundational qualities.

"She had no idea how to do her job," says an officer who says they have had the displeasure of working with Castro. "She's been carried her whole life, why shouldn't this job be any different?"

Officers describe her as chronically reluctant to leave the Northeast Regional Command Center (NERC), panicky on calls, prone to hysterical radio transmissions, and quick to offload fieldwork onto rookies.

"She's like Thomas, never wanting to leave the NERC," says an officer currently assigned to the Northeast Regional Command Center. "Her and Thomas were told to go out to a call, and she [Castro] calls a rookie to cover her. That rookie says he will, hangs up to head out there, and she loses it."

"She's like the rest of them, Jones and Thomas, only wanting to do little as possible to get that check," says another disgruntled officer. "She went crying to Jones, and that email went out. That is not how you supervise, that's not how you do this job."

"She's the OIC, working as a sergeant, but doesn't even know what the position really entails, or what she should be doing," says yet another officer. "She's making it up as she goes and Jones is fine with it because he's chasing after her like some lovesick tween."

"I feel sorry for whoever gets her as a sergeant," says another officer. "She's going to be an absolute tyrant."

Multiple sources paint a consistent picture: Castro is frequently unaware of her location on calls, screams incomprehensibly over the radio, and has had public episodes of hysteria when suspects flee.

"Castro doesn't know where she is on her calls, she screams over the radio so you can't even understand her, and she's had fits of hysteria when a subject ran from her."

"She's never had any respect as an officer, on any of her shifts," says another police officer. "Hell, TAC didn't even want her because they don't have the time to carry an officer."

"Right now, she thinks she's someone, but we can't depend upon her," says yet another officer. "I'm not sure how she made it even this far in the job. I don't even understand how she thinks she is going to be that change the department goes on about."

Why is Castro unfit to serve as OIC?

- Absence of supervisory training or experience: She has never held formal rank, never attended a sergeant-level leadership academy, and is learning the job on the fly while being paid and tasked as a sergeant.

- Demonstrated avoidance of street duties: Sergeants and OICs must lead from the front; multiple officers say Castro hides in the station and pushes fieldwork onto subordinates.

- Poor emotional regulation under stress: Hysterical radio traffic and on-scene meltdowns erode confidence and create officer-safety hazards.

- Reliance on favoritism rather than competence: Sources repeatedly allege she is shielded and enabled by a sympathetic supervisor, not merit.

- Lack of respect from peers: Even the department's Tactical Unit reportedly rejected her because they "don't have time to carry an officer."

- Inability to mentor or lead: As a current Field Training Officer who once told a subject "Take your hands out of your pockets because I don't want to shoot anyone today," she is simultaneously shaping the next generation of EPPD officers while displaying questionable judgment herself.

"She has the same workload as a sergeant, even has the temporary rank of sergeant, but the liability is also on her shoulders," says a long-time officer with the El Paso Police Department. "She's basically an officer role-playing a sergeant and that's why most officers don't pay any attention to her."

An Officer in Charge is expected to be the most experienced, steady, and decisive person on the shift - the one everyone looks to when things go sideways. Instead, El Paso officers describe looking past Castro, or around her, trusting on their own judgement.

"There have been times, here in the Northeast, that we've only had two cars out clearing calls," says a log time officer. "Because we bust our asses clearing those calls, Command thinks we can work with just a handful of officers. There must be a point where something changes, and before we have an event worse than Walmart, and Castro is in charge of our response."

Until the department is willing to admit it is so chronically understaffed that it is forced to hand critical supervisory roles to officers who are clearly not ready, the liability, and the danger, will only grow.

Those men and women who don the El Paso Police Department Uniform and place their lives on the line for us deserve better. It's time Command wakes up and acts.