An off-duty San Antonio police officer’s night off ended with an arrest Thursday, when patrol officer Raymond Ramos was taken into custody and charged with driving while intoxicated. The San Antonio Police Department identified Ramos as a four-year veteran assigned to the patrol division and said he has been placed on administrative duty while investigations move forward. The department has not released any details about the circumstances of the arrest.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, Ramos had not been booked into the Bexar County Jail as of Thursday afternoon, and bond information was not yet available. The outlet also reported that the department is pursuing a criminal investigation along with a separate internal administrative inquiry.
A String of Off-Duty Arrests Has Put SAPD Oversight in Focus
Ramos’s arrest lands in the middle of a run of off-duty DWI cases and other disciplinary flare-ups that have put San Antonio Police Department oversight under a brighter spotlight. Coverage from KSAT has detailed several recent off-duty arrests involving SAPD officers, while a cop canned after off-duty DWI wreck case highlighted at least one firing tied to similar conduct.
Taken together, those incidents have fueled calls for clearer timelines on how SAPD moves from arrest to discipline. Advocates and watchdog groups have pushed for more timely and transparent public updates so residents can follow what happens between an officer’s arrest and any eventual administrative outcome.
Department Policy on Off-Duty DWI
The San Antonio Police Department’s DWI procedures spell out that the duty to get intoxicated drivers off the road “extends to all sworn members of the Department regardless of their actual duty status.” The manual outlines standardized field sobriety testing and processing steps that apply even when the person suspected of driving while intoxicated is an officer.
Legal Consequences
Under Texas Penal Code §49.04, a typical first-offense DWI is a Class B misdemeanor that carries a minimum of 72 hours in county jail and up to 180 days behind bars. Higher blood-alcohol levels or prior DWI convictions can push penalties higher. Those statutory guardrails shape both the criminal case and any related administrative fallout for public safety employees.
For now, SAPD has publicly identified Ramos and confirmed that he has been moved to administrative duty while investigators do their work. Local outlets are expected to update coverage as booking records, court filings or additional official statements shed more light on what led up to the arrest and what happens next.
