Message from Chief Harold L. Hurtt

Nemo Me Impune Lacessit -- No one injures me with impunity. This is the motto that we pin across our badges to remind others that we stand together in protecting citizens and to remind ourselves that we have each other.

This is the motto that we cling to when an officer like Rodney Johnson is senselessly taken from us. By all accounts this was a man whose life was guided by his beliefs, a gentle giant who put meaning into the words community policing. Whether it was sitting on the union board to further the interests of officers, or pitching in with fundraisers for the community, he lived his life in service to others.

Dragging people out of a burning building was a typical day at the office for Rodney, and it earned him the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education's Medal of Valor. His commitment to the job led to volunteering for warrant squads, task forces and the Strategic Officer Staffing Program. He was very supportive of new technology that would lessen the threat to officers and he put that enthusiasm to work on the taser committee. He truly believed in making a better life for others.

Rodney was a man who was strong in his faith and a man who reveled in the big family that loved him. It is my hope that his wife, Officer Joslyn Johnson, and his family can find comfort knowing how well Rodney Johnson wore our uniform.

We work together, we protect together, we grieve together. No one injures me with impunity. In times when nothing else seems to make sense, we know this much is true.