Videos and photos posted to Facebook on Saturday showed officers on motorcycles escorting a caravan of Manuel Medina campaign workers to an early voting site, apparently with voters in tow.

On Monday, the San Antonio Police Department was looking into whether any of the officers escorting the campaign workers — apparently while off-duty — are employed by the city and whether the escort, replete with sirens and flashing red and blue lights, violated any policies or laws.

At the very least, the episode was bizarre, said Mike Helle, president of the San Antonio Police Officers Association. (SAPOA has not yet endorsed a candidate in the mayoral race.)

“It certainly is unorthodox,” Helle said. “I’ve never in my career heard of anybody doing that. … Why in the world would you need a police escort for that?”

The most obvious answer: to increase visibility during early voting.

One video showed a string of vehicles with Medina campaign signs and American flags held aloft from windows, horns blaring, while the uniformed officers block traffic to keep the caravan flowing.

“We’re live right here,” a Medina campaign worker says in the Facebook video. “We’ve got a police escort, caravan. Right here. North Side. Look at the support, the visibility for Manuel.”

He adds, “We’re about to pull into the UTSA polling site. If you didn’t know, UTSA is an early voting site. And we’re here. We’ve got two people that are going to vote with us.”

Once parked on campus, the campaign worker exits the vehicle.

“How was that visibility?” he asks a fellow campaign worker before approaching the officers. “All right officers, thank you so much. It was good.”

By midday, someone had removed the videos from Medina’s mayoral campaign page on Facebook. A photo of the officers posing with the campaign workers, however, remained online.

“Great #northside caravan for Manuel!” the caption read. “Ended at the #UTSA poll and gained two new voters! Shoutout to Officers Reyes and O’Connor for the support.”

The officers’ bikes “are definitely personally owned motorcycles with light kits,” Helle said after reviewing the photo.

“I think it’s a violation of civil service,” he added. “You cannot be in uniform and be involved in some kind of municipal election. … If they did this without the proper work permits, then they’d be looking at an administrative issue.”

Chapter 143 of the Texas Local Government Code states that a police officer, “while in uniform … may not take an active part in another person’s political campaign for an elective position of the municipality.”

The law defines an “active part in a political campaign” as making a political speech, distributing political literature, writing a letter, signing a petition, “actively and openly soliciting votes” or making “public derogatory remarks” about a candidate.

Medina did not return a call on Monday requesting comment on the police escort.

Earlier that morning, driving downtown before someone sent me a tip about the caravan, I crossed paths with Medina, who was campaigning in front of the Bexar County Courthouse at the corner of South Flores and West Nueva streets. Surrounded by supporters, Medina was handing out campaign literature and greeting passers-by in their vehicles.

“You’re everywhere,” he told me, leaning into my window. “A lot of people are voting. God bless you, brother.”

bchasnoff@express-news.net