FORT WORTH REPORT – After speaker’s race loss, Texas lawmaker gets back to business with anti-crime bill
An eye-catching flyer circulated by the Arlington Police Department depicts a man making a withdrawal at an ATM machine while another man, wearing a hoodie, stands just a few feet behind, holding a potential weapon in his right hand. Giant white letters at the bottom of the photo ask: “What is Jugging?”
While most Texans presumably don’t have a ready answer to that question, Texas law enforcement agencies have dubbed jugging — a stalking robbery or theft that targets people leaving banks and ATMs — as a growing public safety menace in communities across Texas.
Helping lead the charge to confront the threat is state Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, who has reengaged in day-to-day legislative duties as one of 150 members of the House after a monthslong, and ultimately unsuccessful, campaign to lead the chamber.
After losing to fellow Republican Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock in the race for speaker Jan. 14, the three-term House member from Tarrant County’s District 96 is adhering to his pledge to go back to work as a rank-and-file lawmaker.
“It’s been a good shift,” he recently told the Fort Worth Report, describing his focus on the speaker’s race as somewhat equivalent to hitting “the pause button” on his legislative duties. Now, Cook says, it’s “back to legislative business.”
Since the speaker’s contest ended, Cook has introduced a largely law-and-order, pro-family package of 18 bills that includes a proposed anti-jugging statute. Other measures introduced during the opening two weeks of the session would reduce property taxes and deny bail for certain alleged violent or sexual offenders or human traffickers.
House Bill 1902 puts the North Texas legislator at the forefront of an issue that has become a high priority for many law enforcement agencies. Houston police established a citywide task force on jugging in 2023 after a series of attacks. The Arlington Police Department began alerting citizens through digital distribution of the anti-jugging flyer that potentially reached more than a quarter-million citizens on social media. Detectives asked for public outreach to warn residents after they began confronting jugging cases with “some regularity,” said Arlington Police spokesman Tim Ciesco.
A November 2023 case in Arlington typified the pattern. A 61-year-old man went to a bank and then to a shopping center on East Pioneer Parkway, apparently unaware that he was followed from the bank to the shopping center. As the man went inside a business, a suspect backed into a parking lot next to the car, then jumped out to smash a window and steal several items from the car before speeding away.
Another apparent jugging case in Texas occurred late last week, when authorities in El Paso arrested three men from the Houston area who allegedly trailed a 78-year-old man and snatched a bag filled with money after he returned home from his bank. Police apprehended the three men after they were seen in the alleged get-away car outside another bank, according to El Paso police.
Although jugging cases have been reported in both large and small communities, including Frisco, Richardson, El Paso and New Caney in Montgomery County, not every city has declared it a problem. In Fort Worth, police department spokesman Buddy Calzada said robbery detectives aren’t “familiar” with any cases “in the last several months.”
What is jugging?
Arlington police describe jugging as a term “to describe a criminal activity where thieves lurk around financial institutions to target individuals who’ve made large cash withdrawals or deposits. These criminals watch and wait for an opportunity to strike, typically after spotting someone leaving (with) a significant amount of cash.”
The origin of the term varies. North Texas law firm Varghese Summersett, which has offices in Fort Worth, Dallas, Southlake and Houston, writes that the term stems from the idea that “the victim is carrying a ‘jug’ of money, making them a target for criminals.” The term “jug” has also reportedly been used as 19th-century slang for banks.Here’s how Tarrant County representatives voted when Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, was on the ballot.
Consequently, “we can tell you that we have not had an issue or seen an increase in Fort Worth,” he said.
While statistics are relatively rare, some departments have documented the trend. In 2023, the Dallas Police Department recorded 62 “violent” jugging incidents — those resulting in robbery — and another 31 such incidents in 2024, said Senior Corporal Brian E. Martinez, a department spokesman. Statistics for nonviolent jugging cases were unavailable.
Cook, police say new crime category necessary for enforcement
Offenses in jugging cases can be prosecuted by vehicle burglary or robbery statutes, but there is no offense specifically categorized as jugging. Cook and law enforcement officials say the issue would be corrected by House Bill 1902.
The absence of a defined jugging statute has hampered attempts to get a precise count on jugging cases, though many officers cite anecdotal evidence to describe a growing trend.
“These criminals that are organizing … coming at our citizens, to me, that’s a big concern,” said Cook, who was asked by a major statewide law enforcement organization to carry the bill. “And so I think having some focus on it, and a crime that’s specific to the situation, is necessary.”
Cook’s bill defines jugging as an offense if a person targets someone withdrawing money “from an automated teller machine, bank, credit union, or credit services organization” and subsequently “physically follows the other person” or dispatches someone else ‘“to physically follow the other person.” If convicted, an offender would face a state jail felony punishable by 180 days to two years of confinement and a fine of up to $10,000.
Offenses and corresponding punishment would escalate if the perpetrators broke into a vehicle or committed various degrees of robbery, resulting in a maximum first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison.
Benson Varghese, a criminal defense attorney who is founder and managing partner of the Varghese Summersett firm, expressed concern about trying to prove intent in cases in which someone follows a person from a bank or ATM but doesn’t follow up with a crime such as robbery or burglary.
“How are you actually going to prove that?” he said. “It would be very easy to say, ‘No, I was standing behind him at an ATM.’”
Varghese acknowledged the findings in his firm’s report that jugging cases have been on the rise but said existing robbery, burglary and theft statutes are already being used to deal with jugging style cases. One option, he said, would be to perhaps enhance penalties in criminal attacks stemming from targeting someone at an ATM or financial institution.
Houston police made an earlier legislative run in two previous sessions in 2017 and 2019 with anti-jugging bills sponsored by Rep. Gene Wu of Houston, who now heads the House Democratic Caucus. Those measures died in the House.
With apparent jugging cases continuing to escalate, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, or CLEAT, asked Cook to take the lead with a new bill in part because of his position as vice chairman of the House jurisprudence committee during the past legislative session. CLEAT is the state’s largest police labor organization with more than 28,000 members.
Cook had the most bills signed by Gov. Greg Abbott of any Tarrant County lawmaker during the 2023 legislative session, including co-sponsored and jointly authored legislation, according to a Fort Worth Report analysis. One of Cook’s biggest legislative initiatives was a measure to prosecute locally elected prosecutors who do not enforce certain laws.
Jennifer Szimanski, CLEAT’s deputy executive director, said Cook has a “good relationship with our office” and has “carried a lot of pro-law enforcement bills in the past.” Other lawmakers, including Senate Committee Chair Joan Huffman, R-Houston, could introduce similar bills.
Houston was initially considered ground zero for the problem, but jugging rings began migrating into other populous areas including Travis, Dallas, Tarrant and El Paso counties, Szimanski said.
“Initially, law enforcement didn’t exactly know what they were dealing with, but over the years, it became organized and it became apparent what they were doing,” she said. “Initially, the victims would just report a theft or robbery.”
The absence of a stand-alone offense and the Legislature’s failure to enact a measure in previous sessions have combined to widen the opportunities for jugging perpetrators, said Szimanski.
“It’s a huge, huge problem,” she told the Report, adding that the situation “has gotten a lot worse” since lawmakers first attempted to pass legislation.
Szimanski and other supporters describe the bill’s current incarnation as the first step and concede that it’s almost certain to be refined during the monthslong legislative session. “We’re early on in the process and we’re open to some substitute language,” she said.
But after earlier failed legislative attempts to corral a crime problem that has continued to spread, Szimanski said it’s crucial that lawmakers get tough on jugging before they go home in June.
“We want something to pass,” she said.
