Chico Jesus Diaz was in the pre-booking process in Dallas, Texas, when he died on May 9th, 2021. The Dallas Police Department filed the custodial death report indicating that the cause of death was the toxic effects of methamphetamine. Mr. Diaz was 29 years old at the time of his death. 

A watchdog group in Texas tracks such incidents as the following: 

• Any shooting of or by an on- or off-duty Texas police officer resulting in an injury;
• Any fatal shooting of or by an on- or off-duty Texas police officer; and
• Any death of a person while in a penal facility, in the custody of a police officer, or as a result of a police officer’s use of force in a jail, detention center, or state juvenile facility.

Whenever there is a death at a government agency, a death report on the incident must be filed with the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) within 30 days.

Reporting of in-custody deaths has been required for decades but a change occurred in 2005. At that time, the state streamlined the reporting. Another significant change occurred in 2016 when custodial death reports became publicly available in a searchable online catalog.

The watchdog group claims that the Texas criminal justice system reported all deaths to a federal statistics bureau but only some of those deaths were reported to the OAG until January 2013. In a database with all custodial deaths recorded in Texas, research was done to locate the deaths filed with the federal bureau but not with the OAG  between 2005 and 2013.

Learn more in this continuing series. 

There is no intention on this website of implicating persons or organizations in wrongdoing. Assisting prisoners detained in county jails in Texas is the purpose for posts on this site.

–Guest Contributor