Officer J.E. Ellison promoted to Captain OPD

On Wednesday Dec. 15, at 3 p.m Chief Lane Martin promoted Officer J.E. Ellison to the rank of Captain.

Ellison is a 1992 graduate of Buna High School, and attended Lamar University in Orange majoring in Criminal Justice. He started his law enforcement career with the Orange Co. Sheriff's Department in 1994 as a corrections officer. While still assigned to the jail division, he attended the Lamar Regional Police Academy in 1996, and obtained his peace officers license. Upon completion of the police academy, he was assigned to the patrol division as a deputy.

In April 1997, Ellison became employed with the City of Orange Police Department as a police officer, at the age of 22. He has worked in the patrol division and detective division during his tenure with the Orange Police Department. He has amassed over 3,100 hours of TCLEOSE training, is a breath test intoxilyzer operator, licensed TCLEOSE instructor, and a Field Training Officer. He currently holds an Advanced Peace Officers License.

Ellison has served as the union president of the Orange Municipal Police Association for the past two years and was involved in getting Orange County police officers and fire firefighters included with the 100 Club of Southeast Texas. Ellison displayed an interest in 2009 to learn how to play the bagpipes, and has since been involved in several "honor guard" details where a police bagpiper was requested. Eric was recently featured in THE LAW OFFICER magazine in Oct. 2010, for his participation in an honor guard camp in Goshen, Indiana. He was also selected by the Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA) as the officer of the month for Dec. 2010.

Ellison is married to his high school sweetheart, Brandi, and they have two teenaged daughters, Ashlyn and Kaitlyn. He and his family are members of Commonground Community Church in Bridge City.