Texas DPS Director Steven Mccraw Announces Retirement

DPS Director Steven McCraw announced his retirement on August 23, 2024, after 15 years as DPS Director. His tenure was marked by involvement in significant state issues, including border security through Operation Lone Star, and responses to various mass shootings. His leadership during these times has been both praised for its directness and criticized for the outcomes of certain operations

McCraw started his law enforcement career in 1977 with the agency, rising through the ranks before leaving to join the FBI in 1983, serving as special agent in Dallas, Washington, D.C., and San Antonio before returning to Texas to serve as Homeland Security Director in the Office of the Governor where he served until his appointment as DPS director.

One of the most scrutinized moments of McCraw's tenure was the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting in May 2022. Despite initial narratives, it was later revealed that the response was flawed, with officers waiting 77 minutes before confronting the shooter. McCraw faced criticism for this response but maintained that his officers did not fail the community, though he acknowledged individual errors

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On Sept. 9, 2022, McCraw told CNN he would resign if his troopers had “any culpability” in the flawed police response to that school shooting. A few days later, in an exclusive interview with KVUE’s Tony Plohetski, McCraw said, “We have some level of culpability. I've got no doubt. To the extent that the Department of Public Safety is responsible for the failed response – there are some things I just can't admit to, simply because it's not true. And I'm not in a position right now to try to defend what DPS did or not.”