Yes, Sheriff Adrian Garcia. Not Sheriff-elect any more, as he’s been officially sworn in now, and a new era is underway.
Harris County needs more “boots on the ground” to arrest criminals, prevent crime and help residents of its far-flung neighborhoods feel safer, newly elected Sheriff Adrian Garcia said Sunday.
In an inaugural address to hundreds of supporters, Garcia said he would ask county commissioners to pay for additional academy classes while he took steps internally to free up more deputies for patrol duties. About 800 deputies now patrol an area that would be the seventh-largest U.S. city, Garcia said.
The sheriff’s department has no “cold case squad” to re-open old investigations, Garcia said, and its academy needs more trainers. Deputies complain of being overworked while residents say they rarely see a patrol car, he said.
“Among the highest priorities,” the county’s first Hispanic sheriff said, “is getting more boots on the ground. I will serve as the chief recruiter for the Harris County sheriff’s department.”
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After the event, [County Judge Ed] Emmett said commissioners would carefully consider any requests by Garcia for new positions in the sheriff’s department. The timing of the request is good, Emmett said, because the county is just starting its annual budget process.
Garcia didn’t specify how many more deputies he needs, but said it should be enough that deputies can get to know people in the neighborhoods they serve and establish a regular presence. Such tactics reassure the public and deter criminals, Garcia said.
That’s good to hear. I hope that one of the things our new Sheriff will focus on is removing deputies from jail guard duties, in order to get them back on the streets as he wishes. That will necessitate some work on reducing jail overcrowding in Harris County, which perhaps is something else Commissioners Court can assist with, by making it clear that we’ve got all the jail space we need, we just need to use it more sensibly. I really hope that’s a direction we’ll take, though that will be up to our new District Attorney and the judiciary as much as it will be for the Sheriff and the County Commissioners. Here’s to some new policies for the new year and beyond.
After the event, Garcia said two former high-ranking deputies who sued him last week after he fired them had every right to take their grievance to court. The officers claim civil service rules and state law entitled them to demotions.
Garcia said his actions were justified.
“I need to be able to determine who shares my vision” for the department, Garcia said. “The taxpayers who elected me voted for change.”
I tried, I really did, to feel…I don’t know, something…about that weekend story concerning the ousted employees and the persona-non-grata fliers that appeared. All I can say is that if that’s the worst thing that happens during Garcia’s tenure, he’ll be the best Sheriff we’ve ever had. Greg has more.
The City of Dallas back in 1999-2001 ish hired a new police chief who immediately fired most of the existing commanders. Dallas Civil Service rules at the time stated that those folks should have been given back their previous Civil Service positions, basically demoted from Asst Chief down to Capt or Lt or whatever they promoted from. The City of Dallas ended up settling these lawsuits for over 5 million dollars before it was all said and done.
Harris County Civil Service regulations state that the Majors or Chief Deputies may be demoted back to their highest Civil Service Ranks, Capt in the the two that sued case. Thus from the Civil Service side of things the case shapes up similar to the Dallas fiasco.
The difference is that under state laws an incoming sheriff in theory can refuse to renew the contract of any existing employee. The question is whether the state laws and county’s civil service regs trump that the sheriffs “right” to do so.
If Harris County didn’t have civil service the point would be moot and the two employees would have no case whatsoever.
I think the difference between these two and I believe all the other demoted Majors and Chiefs is that everyone else was eligible for retirement.
We have had the Sheriff’s in our community for a year now forced into a contract with our Water District, and I can tell you they DO NOT PATROL in any capacity…nor has it improved in the past year, if anything it has gotten worse. We can go for weeks with no patrol and calling in is ridiculous, nothing seems to be a priority. I do feel the sheriff’s have what it takes to do the job it is just appartent they do not want to. If they really do not want to patrol our community then refund our money for the 2008 year these two months and leave. We’ve hewrd enough excuses. You won on accountability make them accountable for what they signed and took the monay to do, you got 2500 new recruits in 2009 and we got less than 1% coverage. Ask around you’ll see for yourself.