RRC Expands Collaboration with Texas Law Enforcement The Railroad Commission is lending more of its expertise to help bring bad actors to justice. The agency’s legal enforcement investigators have stepped up their outreach and collaboration to help federal, state and local law enforcement in their investigations. The collaboration is invaluable because of a recent troubling trend in Texas: an increase in oilfield theft that is affecting oil and gas operators, especially in the Permian Basin. The RRC has been receiving more calls from industry and law enforcement agencies seeking help investigating their cases. The assistance our investigators provide includes more seminars and conferences around the state explaining what types of RRC records can help investigations, as well as working directly with law enforcement. The RRC has been able to assist an array of counterparts, including, but not limited to, the Texas Department of Public Safety, county sheriffs, the FBI, Department of Justice, and the Texas State Securities Board. “We’re able to lend our expertise and utilize the large amount of oil and gas information housed at the RRC to help law enforcement agencies,” said Megan Neal, RRC Deputy General Counsel. “They want to learn about our permitting and regulation of oil and gas facilities, and we not only help them understand those processes, but we also explain how to query the vast amount of oil and gas records that we have that can be used in their cases.” Sharing resources has also become a beneficial two-way street. RRC’s investigators are given access to certain law enforcement databases, which can be valuable to internal work at the RRC to regulate statewide rules.
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