08/23/2026
UPDATE: The Township has confirmed that the September 3 Special Board Meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. The tax-rate hearing begins at 5:45 p.m. Please arrive by 5:00 p.m.
A PERSONAL MESSAGE TO THE WOODLANDS
Why Alpha & Omega Is Worth Fighting For
It is 12:11 in the morning. I am sitting out back with a glass of iced tea, trying to understand how something so simple and honest could have gotten so far off the rails.
For the last five or six days, I have listened to people who care about me and A&O. I have heard plenty of advice about what to say and how to say it.
But tonight, I need to speak for myself.
My name is Frank, and the photograph with this post is of Mouse and me in 1987. Mouse was the horse I team roped on while I was in college in New Mexico. When my late father and I founded Alpha & Omega 35 years ago, I became A&O’s first trooper and Mouse became its first horse. Years later, he was featured in the children’s coloring book we created.
This is where Alpha & Omega began.
Back then, I was just a kid who wanted to make a living riding my horse. That was it. I had no political agenda and no grand plan. I loved horses, believed in visible security and wanted to earn an honest living doing something I loved.
That simple dream became Alpha & Omega. I have been blessed beyond anything that young man could have imagined. For more than 31 years, our troopers and horses have served The Woodlands. We have watched children grow up and bring their own children back to meet our horses. We became part of the community—not because somebody gave us that title, but because our people earned it one day, one patrol and one interaction at a time.
Now, somehow, that work has been pulled into a political argument. I do not understand how wanting to ride our horses, smile at people, help the public and prevent crime became political.
Legacy and tradition are not bad words. They are not excuses for refusing to change, nor do they entitle us to a contract. But when they have been earned through decades of honest work, they have real value.
Legacy is the record of promises kept. Tradition is the trust that grows when people show up, do the work and serve a community year after year. Progress should build upon what works—not discard it simply because it has been here a long time.
When I hear the work of our troopers dismissed as little more than a “cell phone on a pony,” I will not pretend it does not hurt. It cuts deeply.
Not simply because it hurts me personally, but because it dismisses the blood, sweat, tears and training that our troopers have put into this operation. It dismisses the people who work through the Texas heat and cold, care for their horses, watch for danger, help lost children and visitors, assist during emergencies and provide additional eyes and ears for law enforcement.
Our troopers are not sworn deputies, and we have never pretended otherwise. We do not currently carry fi****ms because The Woodlands has never asked us to provide that kind of service. A&O can provide properly licensed and commissioned armed security officers, with the training and insurance that service requires, if that is what the community wants.
But our purpose has always been to prevent trouble before a gun or an arrest becomes necessary. Success is often the crime that was never attempted, the confrontation that never began and the person who felt safer because a trooper and horse were nearby.
That kind of security fits the community George Mitchell built: safe, welcoming, approachable and distinctive. It has worked alongside law enforcement for more than three decades. Being different from a deputy does not make it unimportant.
I respect the Sheriff’s Office and its deputies. This is not anti-police, and it should not be political. I am simply asking why a proven operation and 35 jobs should be put at risk without releasing the complete proposal, making an honest comparison and allowing A&O to present its best alternative.
That is why Thursday, September 3 matters. The Special Board Meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., and the tax-rate public hearing begins at 5:45 p.m. Both will be held at The Woodlands Township, 2801 Technology Forest Boulevard.
No agreement with MCSO has been approved, but the budget adopted that night will help shape what happens next.
I am asking Woodlands residents, business owners and everyone who values this community’s character to attend, ask questions and insist on a transparent process. Please ask decision-makers to release the full proposal, compare it fairly with what A&O provides and give us a genuine opportunity to offer an alternative before a final decision is made.
I am not a political operative. I am still that horseman who wanted to earn an honest living riding his horse. Today, I am also a man fighting for his employees, their families, their horses and something beautiful that my late father and I built together.
Tonight, it is just me asking to be heard.
All we have ever wanted to do is ride our horses, smile at people, help keep them safe and go home knowing we did an honest day’s work.
That may sound simple.
It is also worth fighting for.
