We broke a story on our 10pm newscast last night that an interoffice DPS memo written 10 days before the mansion fire reveals security problems not at the mansion….but the Capitol.

Apparently, the lone trooper at the mansion the night of the fire wouldn’t have even been there if the Highway Patrol division of DPS hadn’t been forced to pull him off Capitol duty. In addition, the sergeant who wrote the memo said because of Operation Border Star, security at the Capitol has been weakened…and troopers from the Capitol sent to the border are putting themselves at risk as well as the public because of their lack of training. “We should reconsider our district’s support of Operation border Star. Not only do we not have the manpower to spare, many of the troopers we are sending to the border lack current training and recent experience in patrol procedures which is unsafe fore them and the public. By sending troopers to Operation Border Star, security is weakened at the Capitol.”

Governor Perry’s spokesman, Robert Black, told us “I think that is simply one junior officer complaining to a superior and we believe that the Capitol is absolutely safe right now.”

Apparently, there have been more than 100 vacancies within the DPS since 2002 that the agency hasn’t been able to fill. Troopers say bad pay and benefits would definitely contribute to that problem.