Police arrested an Alice resident outside of Noonan Elementary School earlier this morning around 7:30 am after being alerted by concerned neighbors and staff.
Andrew Ray Ramos was allegedly loitering outside the school with his hand in his pants while children were outside, according to a resident who posted photos of the incident on Facebook.
The Alice Police Department booked Ramos into the Jim Wells County Jail where he currently sits with a $0 bond, although this is likely because a bond has not yet been set by a judge. As of the publishing of this article the charge is listed as public intoxication.
Galvan and other Alice residents took to social media to criticize the department’s response time, because they claim it took more than twenty minutes for an officer to respond to the incident.
According to Alice Police Chief Eden Garcia, the official response time for this call was around 6 minutes. “A response time of 2-3 minutes is really the goal for every call,” Chief Garcia says.
When asked about why the response time was longer for this particular call, Chief Garcia explained that the two officers assigned to that sector were responding to another incident that morning and other officers were not dispatched because there was some confusion about official procedures. Chief Garcia further explained that he spoke with all parties involved to make sure the response time is much quicker going forward. “Our children are truly a top priority, so we have to do better,” he told the Gazette.
Chief Garcia also mentioned that the officer who is assigned to Noonan is not scheduled to arrive until 8:00 am, so that’s another reason why there was no police officer in the area who could have responded. He says the police department is working to see if it would be possible to shift to an earlier arrival time.
As we were wrapping up our conversation Chief Garcia also mentioned that the Alice police did apprehend this same individual the night prior, but officers were turned away by jail staff because of policy issues. The Chief says these issues have now been addressed after a conversation he had with Jim Wells County Sheriff Baker.
UPDATE (02/07/2025 6:06 pm CST) Added clarifying information about the situation and quotes from our conversation with Police Chief Garcia.