1. Texas Rangers
WHICH ONE ARE WE
TALKING ABOUT?

2. Who started the Texas Rangers?
The Texas Rangers played an effective, valiant, and honorable role throughout the early troubled years of Texas. The Ranger Service has differed in organization and policy under varying conditions, demands for service, and state administrations, and it has not been of entirely unbroken continuity. However, it has existed almost continuously from the year of colonization to the present.
In 1821, Stephen F. Austin, known as the "Father of Texas," made a contract to bring 300 families to the Spanish province, which now is Texas. By 1823, probably more than 600 to 700 people were in Texas, hardy colonists from the various portions of the United States at that time, who settled not far from the Gulf of Mexico.

3. History of the Texas Rangers
There was no regular army to protect them, so Austin called the citizens together and organized a group to provide the needed protection. Austin first referred to this group as the Rangers in 1823, for their duties compelled them to range over the entire country, thus giving rise to the service known as the Texas Rangers.

4. What was a Texas Rangers job when they started in 1823?
In a sense, the history of the Texas Rangers is the history of Texas itself. In 1820, Stephen F. Austin, best known as the father of Texas, requested and received permission from the Mexican government for 300 families to enter the territory of Texas. By 1823, the need to create a force in order to provide the pioneers with protection from hostile elements became apparent.
On August 10, 1823, since Texas was then a part of Mexico, Stephen F. Austin sought and obtained additional permission from the Mexican government to employ ten men from a group of volunteers to protect this new Texas frontier. Thus, the history of the Texas Rangers began with duties to "range" over wide areas so as to scout the movements of the renegade Indians. Some accounts say that he Rangers got their name from these ranging activities, but when you look at the original writings of Austin, when he assembled the 10 men he called them Rangers.

5. What do the Texas Rangers do now?
The Texas Ranger Division performs a diverse range of criminal investigations including:
Murder, robbery, sexual assault, burglary, theft, and fraud;
bank fraud;
theft by credit card and computer generated counterfeit checks;
misuse of criminal history information;
misconduct and corruption of public officials;
threats against the governor and other state and federal officials; and
missing persons, parental abductions, questionable deaths and unidentified bodies

6. The Texas Rangers
In 2009, a total of 4,364 investigations resulted in felony arrests, 133 misdemeanor arrests. The Texas Rangers executed 490 search warrants and secured 4,056 statements-including 553 confessions to various crimes. Rangers recovered stolen property valued at $1,819,926 and seized contraband valued at $3,997,226. There were 1,634 convictions for various crimes investigated that resulted in 7 death sentences, 52 life sentences and a total of 9,087 years in penitentiary time being assessed. Rangers served 189 subpoenas and 25 warrants. Rangers conducted 8 hypnosis sessions on criminal investigations.