San Antonio police spent $28,000 on officers’ controversial Dubai trip

The San Antonio Police Department provided administrative leave for officers who participated in a controversial competition in Dubai and even ponied up nearly $28,000 in salaries during the trip, according to records obtained by Texas Public Radio.

In February, SAPD officers took part in Dubai’s UAE SWAT Challenge, an event that drew police units from roughly 70 countries, including some with well-documented records of human-rights violations. Teams from Russia, China and the Philippines were among the participants, according to TPR.

At the time, civil-rights advocates argued SAPD’s participation was troubling and sent the wrong message to the public. Indeed, the department was one of only two from the U.S. to enter the contest, according to TPR, the other being the NYPD.

Now, some of those same advocates argue that SAPD’s participation is made even more disturbing by the revelation that the eight participating officers were paid with tax dollars during the trip.

“Not only did we participate in this week of SWAT games with police departments that have human rights violations accusations against them, but then taxpayer money went towards it,” Ananda Tomas, executive director of police reform group ACT4SA, told TPR.

Each of the SAPD officers in the competition received 72 hours of administrative leave, which spanned Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, then from Feb. 5 to Feb. 9, according to documents obtained by TPR.

In a statement to the news organization, SAPD officials said they couldn’t confirm the amount of money paid to officers. Police officials also declined further comment.

Ariel Dulitzky, who directs UT Austin School of Law’s Human Rights Clinic, said SAPD’s decision to pay officers during the competition makes it look like the department endorsed their participation.

“If [SAPD] continued to pay their salary it means that it probably was considered an official activity of the officers, and not a private trip. … It for sure is something that the department didn’t feel the need to officially disassociate from the participation of the individual officers,” Dulitzky said.

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This article appears in Best of San Antonio 2024.