’Just call me a spokesman for DPS,’ recites Mike Cox, chief of media relations for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), whenever a journalist asks how he should be referred to in a media report. But while walking through a metal detector and past the yellow plastic crime-scene tape en route to his Texas memorabilia-laden office, one suspects right away that Cox is no ordinary spokesperson.

’Just call me a spokesman for DPS,’ recites Mike Cox, chief of

media relations for the Texas Department of Public ...