Matthew Luckhurst, the former San Antonio police officer fired after the infamous “poop sandwich” incident involving a homeless man, has been promoted to police chief in Benavides, Texas.
Yes, really.
Luckhurst began serving as police chief on June 1, 2026, according to records reviewed by KSAT. The Benavides City Council approved his promotion during an April 30 meeting, and council records reportedly list his pay at $28 an hour. Benavides is a small South Texas city located roughly 150 miles south of San Antonio. (KSAT)
Luckhurst’s name became notorious in 2016, when he was working as a San Antonio Police Department bike patrol officer. According to police reports cited by local media, Luckhurst bragged to another officer that he had picked up feces, placed it in bread, put it in a Styrofoam container, and left it near a homeless man. The man reportedly did not eat the sandwich. (The Guardian)
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus condemned the incident at the time as a “vile and disgusting act.” Luckhurst was fired, but later won an appeal after an arbitrator ruled the department missed a 180-day disciplinary deadline. (The Guardian)
That was not the end of the feces-related misconduct record. SAPD later moved to fire Luckhurst again over a separate incident involving a women’s restroom at a downtown bike patrol substation. Officials said he purposely left feces in the toilet and spread a brown, tapioca-like substance on the toilet seat after a female officer posted a sign asking that the restroom be kept clean. An arbitrator upheld that second firing in 2020. (KSAT)
After SAPD, Luckhurst returned to policing elsewhere. He worked for the Floresville Police Department in 2022 before being released after public backlash. By April 2023, he had been hired by the Benavides Police Department. (KSAT)
Now, the same officer tied to one of the most grotesque police misconduct stories in Texas is running a police department.
The promotion has renewed questions about how Texas screens, certifies, and rehires officers with serious misconduct histories. A San Antonio Express-News investigation previously used Luckhurst’s case as an example of what critics call a broken police accountability system: even after firings and public outrage, officers can still find new departments willing to put them back in uniform. (San Antonio Express-News)
Luckhurst has denied that he intended for the homeless man to eat the feces-filled sandwich. But the record remains: SAPD tried to fire him, arbitration gave him another chance, a second feces-related case finally ended his San Antonio police career, and another Texas town still handed him the chief’s badge.
For Benavides residents, the question is simple: if this history does not disqualify someone from leading a police department, what does?
