Family of Navasota police officer killed in crash petition to retire badge number permanently

NAVASOTA, Texas (KBTX) - There’s not a day that goes by that Sarah Cooper doesn’t think about her brother William.

“He was a very tall, gangly, freckled, red-headed guy, but he truly was very compassionate and sweet,” Cooper said.

William was a Navasota policer. His sister Chelsea Cooper Schmidt said he was devoted to his job and wore badge #9323 proudly.

“To see him in the last years of his life just progress and define his calling and to pursue it and excel in it was so rewarding,” Schmidt said.

William died in 2020 in a motorcycle accident in South Dakota. On Tuesday, his family started a petition asking the Navasota Police Department to permanently retire his badge number.

Cooper said her brother was loved by many in the Navasota Police Department and the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office, but that it’s been disheartening for them to continue to hear his badge number over the dispatch radios.

“There’s lots of those out there with his 9323,” Cooper said. “Obviously, with his passing, that number became more associated with him.”

The petition has nearly 400 signatures, Cooper said it has been signed by people from all over.

“I have cried many times,” Cooper said. I’ve teared up because some people are strangers who’ve never met him. They just know the family or the story.”

Cooper said the family will continue to advocate for William.

“He’s always gonna be 9323,” Cooper said. “He’s always gonna be a police officer in our eyes and so to be able to do that for his memory and then our mother is very motivating to me.”

KBTX reached out to Navasota Police Department interim police chief Mike Mize. He said he’ll be speaking with the Navasota city manager about this matter soon.