Sunday, May 5, 2024
The Commissioners Court is moving toward addressing a revolving door problem at the Sheriff’s Office where low pay and an inability to take comp time has created critical staffing shortages.
At a special meeting of the Commissioners Court this week to discuss retention and recruitment of sheriff’s deputies, County Auditor Becky Kidd said that she would work on a funding plan for increasing salaries in that department and would bring it forward to the Commissioners Court at its regular meeting Tuesday.
Currently, the $51,000 per year starting pay for Hood County deputies is lower than many other agencies.
During the special meeting, which was held Tuesday at the Ralph H. Walton Jr. Justice Center, Captain Jonathan Berry and Lieutenant Gary Roberts explained the current state of the SO with help from a 36-slide PowerPoint presentation.
Sheriff Roger Deeds was present.
Deeds recently told the Hood County News that the department is struggling to have enough deputies to work a shift.
Currently, deputies account for 18 of the department’s 55 sworn positions.
Berry said that the department is currently eight deputies short. He stated that when he headed to the Justice Center for the meeting, three deputies were in the background check process in preparation for going to work for other law enforcement agencies. By the time the meeting started, he said, he had learned that the number had risen to five.
Berry said that at a recent recruiting and job fair event involving agencies from surrounding counties, the feedback received by the Hood County Sheriff’s Office was that the department is not competitive in terms of pay and benefits.
He stated that the department needs an additional 20 deputies but even if the Commissioners Court approved funding for those added positions, the SO would first need to replace the eight deputies it has already lost.
The hiring and training process for that many positions will take a year or even two, Berry said.
“We’ve got to start now,” he told the county judge and commissioners.
(Scroll up for a link to the SO's slide presentation.)
