Nation/World

In CSI: Fort Worth style, special lawmen track rustlers

Like a beat cop working the streets, Wayne Goodman is marking his turf and showing his badge as dozens of stock trailers unload hundreds of cattle at the Dublin Livestock Auction.

Goodman looks like Texas law, with a cowboy hat and twin silver belt buckles, one for his jeans and the other for his Model 1911 .45 pistol. Handcuffs are riding on the back of one belt, and the silver badge of a special ranger for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is pinned on his blue shirt and embossed on his green windbreaker.

When Goodman, 57, walks into the sale barn, a tall cattleman eyes that big pistol with elk antler grips, then steps back and swings open the door. "I let people with guns go first," he says.

Goodman's one of just 30 of a unique brand of public/private "cow cops" who investigate agricultural crimes across Texas and Oklahoma.

The special rangers employ 19th-century skills like tracking but also use DNA technology to identify stock or whip out smartphones to tap into the Fort Worth-based association's database of cattle sales.

Read more here

Steve Campbell

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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