In audio obtained by a local lawyer and released by the Austin American-Statesman, a former deputy with the Williamson County, Texas Sheriff’s Office said his superiors made a habit of rewarding officers who used excessive force during interactions with people.

Former Deputy Christopher Pisa, on tape, admitted to Texas Rangers that his bosses within the police department, led by Commander Steve Deaton, would openly reward officers for "good" uses of force with gift cards to a local steakhouse. 

“They had the intention that we were all ‘WilCo badass’ and if you went out there and did your job, and you had to use force on somebody and he agreed with it, then you would get a gift card,” Pisa said in the audio recording.

“It was something everybody knew. He has even said it to people in meetings,” Pisa added, before being asked if it was widely known that Deaton handed out gift cards to steakhouses for officers who used force. 

“A good use of force,” Pisa said.

The newspaper noted that two officers who received gift cards were J.J. Johnson and Zach Camden, the officers who tased Javier Ambler, a 40-year-old Black father, to death in March 2019 as he yelled about not being able to breathe.

In addition to Pisa's testimony, other former officers confirmed the allegations to the Austin American-Statesman and said Deaton would often speak openly about the gift cards in meetings. 

Former sergeant Troy Brogden, who spent 20 years on the force and resigned last year as a supervisor, corroborated Pisa's testimony telling the Austin American-Statesman, “He would talk about it in groups, including supervisors meetings and classes. I was like, ‘What the hell?’” 

Pisa resigned after he used force on a Black woman during a traffic stop in April 2019, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Little information about the case has been released since he resigned and he is currently being investigated for his actions.  

After attacking the Black woman during the traffic stop, Pisa said he expected a steakhouse gift card.

In a statement, Sheriff Robert Chody admitted that the police department did use gift cards to reward officers but only for things like "excellent fingerprints."

Pisa's testimony to Texas Rangers has shed light on the police department's rife with troubling incidents.

Deaton was forced to resign in September for a variety of reasons, including abhorrent social media posts. KXAN reported that many of his social media posts involved dolls arranged in positions that implied sexual assault, and another photo showed dolls using a chainsaw to cut a Black football player in half for kneeling during the national anthem.  

The department was featured on the controversial reality TV show Live PD, and Deaton caused even more outrage by asking a group of officers whether any of them had slept with producers on the show. 

The show spotlighted the department from November 2018 until August 2019, when the Williamson County Commissioners Court decided to end the agreement with the TV show. In late August, the Austin American-Statesman reported that the TV show led to increasingly dangerous, violent behavior by officers that culminated in the death of Ambler. 

Ambler allegedly did not dim his headlights while driving home from a poker game on March 28, 2019, and officers Camden and Johnson chased him for nearly half an hour through two separate counties, wrecking five other cars as the TV cameras filmed. 

As Blavity previously reported, Ambler pleaded with officers to stop tasing him because he had a heart condition.

"I have congestive heart failure,” Ambler said. “I have congestive heart failure. I can’t breathe."

The TV show's producers have faced criticism for pushing the police officers to take more risks for the show, and they are still under fire for allegedly deleting all of the footage of Ambler's death, according to KVUE-TV. 


The Austin American-Statesman found that with the cameras rolling, the department more than doubled the number of car chases they engaged in before killing Ambler.