Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five fifty two is our time here in Newston's Warning News.
I mean, quickly reach a point here that you call
for the Harris County Sheriff's Department. They don't have a
whole lot of deputies to send out. I guess we
could get there. There's a huge pay disparagy coming right
now for Harris County Sheriff's deputies. I think it's I
want to say, it's somewhere around a twenty four thousand
dollars difference between what they're gonna be paying police officers
(00:22):
in Houston now and what they traditionally pay Harris County
Sheriff's deputies. Linda Hildago pleted poverty. Well, we're gonna have
to We're gonna have to increase taxes if we're gonna
give these guys a raise. While in the meantime, she's
out there planning a trip to Paris, right, Jose Lopez
joins us president of the Harris County Deputies Organization. So
the county is pleting poverty, Jose, But at the end
(00:45):
of the day here something's gonna have to happen on
behalf of the Harris County sheriffs.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
And that is absolutely correct. Something's gonna have to happen
because we are going to lose deputies in large numbers,
particularly to the Houston Police Department.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, there's a huge shortage. I want to say, there's
at least five hundred police officers short in the City
of Houston.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Correct, So the City of Houston is wants to fill
one thousand, two hundred police officer positions.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Wow, that's a lot of spots. How many deputies do
you have in Harris County?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So we have nineteen one hundred deputies. That's total deputies,
that's detectives, that bay lives, working in the jails, transportation
patrol deputies we have about five hundred.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So if they hired every one of your patrol deputies
and left Harris County sf'sparmer with any patrol deputies, they
would still have a shortage of officers. So it's very
conceivable they could all leave for the Houston Police Department.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Absolutely, And that's where the sounding the alarms was necessary
because of just how many of the Houston Police Department
is trying to fill. And yeah, absolutely, they take all
of our patrol deputies, it's going to leave us no
(02:21):
deputies to patrol the streets, and yes, you're absolutely correct,
they still have room to recruit from other agencies, deputy
constables or you know, surrounding agencies.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
What has been recruitment? What has recruitment been like for
the Harris County Sheriff's Deputies organization with the pay rate
that you have right now, has been difficult to attract officers.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Absolutely, it's difficult to attract officers because the surrounding law
enforcement agencies are paying more than what the Harris County
Sheriff's Office is paying. With that being said, it's also
has been difficult to retain what the deputies that we have. Now.
(03:06):
For the past several years, we have been losing deputies
to surrounding law enforcement agencies that pay more. But we've
been losing them in seven deputies, eight deputies, ten, three,
so on and so forth. The danger part here is
just the number of Houston Police officers that they're trying
(03:27):
to get.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So any idea Jose Lopez, how much it costs to
train Harris County deputy? How much money is invested in
the training of a brand new deputy.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
It's roughly around ninety thousand dollars per.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Cadet Okay so every time you have somebody leave, you
have to spend ninety thousand dollars to train somebody else
to take that job. And if you're talking about hundreds
of jobs, you're talking about a massive sum of money.
There would be cheaper just to pay them more to
keep them here. Wouldn't it constantly retrain people?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Absolutely, absolutely, it's cheaper to pay them to retain what
we have. And also the basic Peace Office course is
ten months long and then they go through a three
months of FTO program, so it's a total of thirteen months.
And then for them just to just to go where
(04:25):
they're going to pay them more.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, to train them for somebody else's It turns
out all right. Jose Lopez, thank you, sir, appreciate the information.
That's the president of the Harris County Deputies Organization, Hose
Jose Lopez back with more in a moment. It's five
fifty six. You're on news radio seven forty KTRH
Five fifty two is our time here in Newston's Warning News.
I mean, quickly reach a point here that you call
for the Harris County Sheriff's Department. They don't have a
whole lot of deputies to send out. I guess we
could get there. There's a huge pay disparagy coming right
now for Harris County Sheriff's deputies. I think it's I
want to say, it's somewhere around a twenty four thousand
dollars difference between what they're gonna be paying police officers
(00:22):
in Houston now and what they traditionally pay Harris County
Sheriff's deputies. Linda Hildago pleted poverty. Well, we're gonna have
to We're gonna have to increase taxes if we're gonna
give these guys a raise. While in the meantime, she's
out there planning a trip to Paris, right, Jose Lopez
joins us president of the Harris County Deputies Organization. So
the county is pleting poverty, Jose, But at the end
(00:45):
of the day here something's gonna have to happen on
behalf of the Harris County sheriffs.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
And that is absolutely correct. Something's gonna have to happen
because we are going to lose deputies in large numbers,
particularly to the Houston Police Department.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, there's a huge shortage. I want to say, there's
at least five hundred police officers short in the City
of Houston.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Correct, So the City of Houston is wants to fill
one thousand, two hundred police officer positions.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Wow, that's a lot of spots. How many deputies do
you have in Harris County?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So we have nineteen one hundred deputies. That's total deputies,
that's detectives, that bay lives, working in the jails, transportation
patrol deputies we have about five hundred.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So if they hired every one of your patrol deputies
and left Harris County sf'sparmer with any patrol deputies, they
would still have a shortage of officers. So it's very
conceivable they could all leave for the Houston Police Department.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Absolutely, And that's where the sounding the alarms was necessary
because of just how many of the Houston Police Department
is trying to fill. And yeah, absolutely, they take all
of our patrol deputies, it's going to leave us no
(02:21):
deputies to patrol the streets, and yes, you're absolutely correct,
they still have room to recruit from other agencies, deputy
constables or you know, surrounding agencies.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
What has been recruitment? What has recruitment been like for
the Harris County Sheriff's Deputies organization with the pay rate
that you have right now, has been difficult to attract officers.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Absolutely, it's difficult to attract officers because the surrounding law
enforcement agencies are paying more than what the Harris County
Sheriff's Office is paying. With that being said, it's also
has been difficult to retain what the deputies that we have. Now.
(03:06):
For the past several years, we have been losing deputies
to surrounding law enforcement agencies that pay more. But we've
been losing them in seven deputies, eight deputies, ten, three,
so on and so forth. The danger part here is
just the number of Houston Police officers that they're trying
(03:27):
to get.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So any idea Jose Lopez, how much it costs to
train Harris County deputy? How much money is invested in
the training of a brand new deputy.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
It's roughly around ninety thousand dollars per.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Cadet Okay so every time you have somebody leave, you
have to spend ninety thousand dollars to train somebody else
to take that job. And if you're talking about hundreds
of jobs, you're talking about a massive sum of money.
There would be cheaper just to pay them more to
keep them here. Wouldn't it constantly retrain people?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Absolutely, absolutely, it's cheaper to pay them to retain what
we have. And also the basic Peace Office course is
ten months long and then they go through a three
months of FTO program, so it's a total of thirteen months.
And then for them just to just to go where
(04:25):
they're going to pay them more.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, to train them for somebody else's It turns
out all right. Jose Lopez, thank you, sir, appreciate the information.
That's the president of the Harris County Deputies Organization, Hose
Jose Lopez back with more in a moment. It's five
fifty six. You're on news radio seven forty KTRH
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