SAN ANTONIO - An off-duty drunk driving crash that left a San Antonio police officer hospitalized has now ended his career with the department, nearly 18 months after the wreck, according to city discipline records.
The San Antonio Police Department fired Officer Jose Bernal Rodriguez in May, following an internal review that stretched back to a September 2024 crash near West Loop 1604 South and Potranco Road. Records show the move followed an indefinite suspension earlier this year and came after a pretrial diversion agreement in his criminal case. Bernal Rodriguez had been with SAPD since 2019, and his case lands in the middle of a run of high-profile discipline and criminal matters involving the department’s ranks.
What the Records Show
According to documents obtained by KSAT, Bernal Rodriguez failed a standardized field sobriety test at the scene and was taken into custody on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
The probable-cause affidavit states he "had bloodshot watery eyes and continued to sway," and a warrant-ordered blood draw later measured his blood-alcohol concentration at 0.082. The records show he was medically rejected at booking, treated at a hospital for crash injuries, and then formally arrested months later, in February 2025.
Discipline Trend at SAPD
The firing lands amid a broader pattern of discipline cases that has put SAPD under a brighter spotlight. A review by the Express-News found nine SAPD officers were arrested in 2025, several on DWI or other off-duty charges, highlighting deeper personnel and accountability concerns inside the department.
Local coverage has also chronicled Detective Albert Garansuay’s off-duty DWI arrest and the administrative outcome that followed, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. Bernal Rodriguez’s case now joins that growing list, another data point in a year when what officers do off the clock keeps spilling back into SAPD headquarters.
Legal Note
Court records show Bernal Rodriguez was granted pretrial diversion in early December 2025, which generally means the criminal charge will be dismissed if he completes the program’s conditions, according to KSAT.
Discipline paperwork indicates SAPD issued an indefinite suspension in February, then converted that to a termination in May. The department has not released the full details of its disciplinary findings, leaving the public with only the broad strokes of how internal investigators reached their decision. The timing underscores how criminal cases and in-house discipline often move on separate, sometimes awkwardly parallel tracks.
Why It Matters
For San Antonio residents, the sequence of events, a 2024 off-duty crash, a 2025 diversion deal, then a 2026 firing, raises familiar questions about transparency and speed. How long should it take for the city to move from arrest to administrative punishment when the person in question wears a badge?
City leaders and policing advocates have continued to push for clearer timelines and more consistent public reporting on how SAPD investigates and disciplines officers. Reporters who have reviewed discipline files and court records say this case is one more example of how complicated, and sometimes confusing, the mix of criminal proceedings and internal administrative processes can be in police oversight.
