Crime Stoppers Council Weighs Which Local Programs Keep Their Court-Funded Rewards Money

The Texas Crime Stoppers Council meets Oct. 12 in Amarillo to decide which local tip-line programs keep the state certification that lets judges order probationers to pay them.

Certification is the whole game for a local crime stoppers group. Texas law lets a judge make a payment to a certified program a condition of probation, and only this five-member council can grant that status, let it continue or take it away. The Oct. 12 agenda folds new and continued certifications, mergers, territory expansions and decertifications into a single item, then adds an update on programs already operating under a corrective action plan. Decertification is not a criminal finding against anyone; it ends an organization’s access to court-ordered money.

The notice names none of the programs involved, and the council publishes no board packet, so which groups are at risk will not be public until the meeting opens. The council controls a second stream of money as well. Its director’s report covers grants from the Crime Stoppers Assistance Fund, which the governor’s criminal justice division announces each December with applications usually due at the end of February, and which favors groups that host the annual training conferences. Rule changes in the Texas Administrative Code are listed too, with no indication of what is changing.

All five members are appointed by the governor, and two of them live in the city hosting the meeting: Jarrod Robertson, an Amarillo police officer who coordinates the city’s student program, and Perry Gilmore, a reserve officer with the same department who was reappointed last December. Cheryl Sinacola of Fairview is vice chair of the national Crime Stoppers USA board, and Jeff Jordan of Kyle is a Hays County sheriff’s sergeant who runs that county’s program. State law has the council elect its own chair each year; the most recent state source naming one is the governor’s October 2024 release, which called Gregory New of Waxahachie, a Grand Prairie police officer, the chair. No current roster is published anywhere the Dispatch could find.

The rest of the agenda is housekeeping with a long horizon: conference proposals, a student advisor’s report and a training calendar running through 2029. Anyone may speak on matters not posted, for two minutes. The governor’s own council meetings page had not posted this meeting when checked Oct. 5; it still showed a February date.

Meeting at a glance

Council members

• Gregory New — chair; Waxahachie; Grand Prairie police officer; term to 2028.
• Cheryl Sinacola — Fairview; vice chair, Crime Stoppers USA board; term to 2028.
• Jarrod Robertson — Amarillo; Amarillo police officer; term to 2028.
• Perry Gilmore — Amarillo; reserve officer, Amarillo police; term to 2029.
• Jeff Jordan — Kyle; sergeant, Hays County Sheriff’s Office; term to 2029.

The council publishes no roster page. Names, cities, occupations and term-end dates here come from the governor’s own appointment releases of October 3, 2024 and December 8, 2025, checked October 5, and account for all five seats. New’s chairmanship is as stated in the 2024 release; the Dispatch found no later announcement either confirming or changing it, and Government Code §414.002 has the council elect a chair from among its voting members at its first meeting after each fiscal year begins. That section also sets the council at five voting members appointed by the governor with senate consent, to four-year terms, within the criminal justice division of the governor’s office. Staff contact for the meeting: Lyndsay Ysla, Office of the Governor.