Danbury again able to police itself

The Facts
By KENT HOLLE kent.holle@thefacts.com
Mar 1, 2023

DANBURY — Police Chief Randy Rhyne asked the Danbury City Council for permission to make his part-time officer, Christopher Henken, a full-time employee, bringing his department to three officers including himself and David Hawkins.

It took very little to talk the council into unanimously approving the promotion.

“He’s a good guy,” Mayor Sue Powell said.

“He’s doing really well,” Councilwoman Kylie Kroschel said. “I like that he knows people in town.”

While three officers may not seem like much, it is an achievement for the town that not long ago was essentially without a police department and was relying on the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office and constable units for all of its law enforcement needs.

A quick Google search for Danbury’s police chief brings up multiple results because of the title changing hands over the years. It can be seen as a sign of the difficulties which Rhyne says came with the office when he was hired on to essentially rebuild the department from scratch.

“I worked seven to eight months by myself, trying to reorganize the department and getting things back up to speed,” Rhyne said. “It’s a very daunting task when you come into a new place and you have to literally start from ground zero and start to rebuild it.”

One of the challenges he’s faced is finding the right officers to bring in who can handle the pace and pay scale of small town policing. One of the ways he’s managed to do that is by looking at officers, like himself, who have earned retirement from other departments, but still have a desire to be in law enforcement.

“Danbury is a little slower paced, but they still have the same, exact problems of Pearland and Lake Jackson. It’s not different. But it’s a little slower paced and sometimes younger officers get a little bored,” Rhyne said. “So I had made up my mind I was looking for older officers that were ready to slow down some.”

Not only does that allow for finding people who meet the criteria for Danbury, but they are already trained and experienced.

Rhyne said that Danbury needs the three full-time officers and he would love to have more, indicating he will likely ask the council for an additional officer in next year’s budget.

“It is what it is. All they can do is tell me no. I don’t get mad,” he said.

In the meantime, having three full-time officers should help with response times and allow the local residents to get to know their officers, something that can be instrumental in local policing.

“The Sheriff’s Office and the Constable’s units have done an excellent job of trying to help cover the city when there was no police here and they still help me out every chance they get, but they have their own job they need to do and the citizens of Danbury would like to see their own police department. I get it,” Rhyne said.

His goal since the beginning has been to arrange 24-hour coverage of the city, though there were many challenges doing that when he was working alone. With each officer added, that problem has lessened. Rhyne said he was especially concerned with keeping coverage over the busiest days of the week, which are unsurprisingly Thursday through Sunday until 2 a.m.

The city, meanwhile, has helped him with his goals, with regards to both the population and the government.

“The City Council has been nothing but great to me. They don’t get in the police department’s business. The only two questions I’ve had from anyone on City Council are ‘What do you need?’ and ‘What can we do to help you?’” he said.

That’s been helpful as Rhyne says he has had to bring the department forward with functional computers and equipment, though he also says he is doing so in a way that is mindful of taxpayer dollars.

He also says that the residents of the town have been a huge positive to him and the rest of the department, saying it’s like no other place he’s ever been. While Rhyne was born and raised in Angleton, he recounts spending time in Danbury both as a child and as an employee working cases for the Sheriff’s Office.

“Being on this side of it, the people of Danbury have been exceptionally welcoming,” he said, saying he’s heard the same from Hawkins, who comes in from Lake Jackson. Henken already lived in the town when he started.

“It’s just a great community,” Rhyne said.