Sheriff Adrian Garcia

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admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:57:45 +0000

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Harris County Sheriff’s Office to beef up force with volunteers

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:05:37 +0000

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office was recently recognized by KHOU Channel 11’s Alex Sanz:

In the face of major budget cuts, Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia wants to increase his deputy force by adding more volunteer deputies to the department.

The Sheriff’s Office — like other county agencies and departments — is under orders to reign in spending. It’s leaving vacant jobs open. It’s reassigning deputies to fill gaps in the ranks. And now, it’s beefing up its reserves — hoping to add at least another 100 deputies to the 231-person volunteer force.

“They do an invaluable job for the Sheriff’s Office, not to mention the work that they do for citizens of Harris County,” said Chief Deputy Kevin Maples of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

The volunteers have gone through the rigors of the Sheriff’s academy to meet state training mandates. They work the streets on their own time — and their own dime.

“We’ve been doing more with less for years,” said Robert Goerlitz, president of the Harris County Deputies Organization. “These guys, basically, are the lifeline. It’s a win-win.”

The Reserves saved Harris County taxpayers more than $3.1 million last year, Maples said.

“We work during the week and work [as reserves] on Saturday and Sunday,” said Gary Look, Captain of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Patrol, who also works as a veterinarian at Woodlake Veterinary Clinic.

“It’s a great part of my life and it has been,” he said. “And I hope it will be for a long, long time.”

A group of Sheriff’s Office Reserves took part in last week’s operation targeting street racers. In the past, they’ve taken drunk drivers off the streets, helped solve financial crimes and backed up paid deputies.

“The reward we get is not monetary,” said Maples, who is also a part of the reserves. “The reward we get is that pat on the back. The knowing that we did something really good in our community. And I think that’s what carries these volunteers that are in law enforcement.”

Sheriff Shatters Backlog of Internal Investigations

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:37:10 +0000

The Office of Inspector General of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office has successfully reduced a backlog of internal affairs investigations that had left in limbo many deputies who can now return to full work status.

In 2009, the sheriff’s first year in office, the OIG closed 255 complaint cases – about three times as many as in 2008.

This milestone allows Sheriff Adrian Garcia to redeploy four personnel who had been assigned to the OIG.

When the sheriff took office in January 2009, many internal investigations had been pending for several months — some for more than a year. He reorganized the pre-existing OIG and Internal Affairs Division (IAD), which were separate offices. He consolidated them in March and added nine personnel from throughout the agency, producing a total staff of 48. The number now drops to 44, in a total HCSO workforce of about 4,000.

“I’m pleased and relieved to be able to say our strategy worked,” the sheriff said. “By strengthening our internal investigation bureau, we were able to put more of our personnel back into active law enforcement jobs while more quickly isolating the few who needed corrective action. And of course we were able to pay utmost respect to our working men and women by resolving complaints against them in a responsibly quicker manner. In a time when we must do more with less, I have redeployed personnel department-wide, which included the Office of Inspector General.”

The mission of the Office of Inspector General is to protect and preserve the public trust and confidence in the employees of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office by conducting thorough and impartial investigations regarding allegations of employee misconduct. The OIG is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the HCSO’s approximately 4,000 employees meet and/or exceed the highest standards of honesty, integrity, accountability, and efficiency. The OIG accomplishes this mission by conducting independent investigations, audits, inspections, proactive measure, and special reviews of Sheriff’s Office personnel, policies and/or practices in a continuing effort to promote integrity, reduce waste, increase efficiency and improve upon the overall effectiveness of the services being delivered by the employees of the Sheriff’s Office. The OIG is headed by Major James Kirk.

“Investigating complaints against employees made by citizens or staff is one of the most difficult assignments one could have. I am proud of the men and women who have been true professionals in how they handle these issues on behalf of the community and our employees,” Garcia said.

Sheriff Garcia to Host First Town Hall Meeting of the Year

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:17:53 +0000

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia will meet with residents on Saturday, January 30 during a morning town hall meeting in north Harris County – the first one of the year.

Attendees will have the opportunity to share with the Sheriff and members of his command staff any concerns they may have. The Sheriff will also discuss results from the recently created Gang Unit and the Safe Home Task Force, among other things.

Also in attendance will be members of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Robbery Division, Crime Stoppers, Aldine ISD Police and Constable Precinct 2.

Parents will have the opportunity to have their children fingerprinted courtesy of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Community Support Bureau. Fingerprints are an excellent identification and locator tool in the case of a missing child.

This is Sheriff Garcia’s third town hall meeting since taking office in January 2009. It was originally scheduled for December 5, 2009 but was rescheduled due to weather conditions that day. The Sheriff’s first town hall meeting was in Channelview in June, followed by one in Katy in August. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

WHO:
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia

WHAT:
Town Hall Meeting

WHEN:
Saturday, January, 30, 2010
10 a.m. – Noon

WHERE:
YES Prep North Central
13703 Aldine-Westfield

Sheriff plans to set up own SWAT team

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:31:29 +0000

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office is starting an elite “high-risk” squad with the aim of developing it into a full-fledged SWAT team.

Maj. Bob Doguim began soliciting applications for the eight-member team two weeks ago, just about the time his boss, Sheriff Adrian Garcia, was preparing a budget plan that would slash department spending by $47 million in the year that begins March 1.

The high-risk unit’s first hires will come from the existing ranks as the deputies’ union is sending out a newsletter criticizing the sheriff for what it calls “reduced boots on the ground.”

Doguim said that because the start-up costs for equipment, training and vehicles are covered by a $1 million federal grant and the unit’s members will be drawn from existing deputies, it will not necessitate additional spending, at first. But he acknowledged that replacement equipment, future training and, perhaps, even backfilled positions vacated by the deputies who join the team could cost general fund money in the future.

The Sheriff’s Office typically summons the Houston Police Department’s Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT, unit for high-risk situations. The FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety also have SWAT units that can deploy in Harris County.

Entering 21st century

Former Sheriff Tommy Thomas, who led the office for 14 years until Garcia defeated him in 2008, said he never saw the need to develop such a unit and only called on Houston’s SWAT unit two or three times a year.

“It certainly was a cost factor,” Thomas said of his decision not to launch such a unit. “If you’ve got the manpower and funds to do it, I guess it’s OK.”

Garcia said in a released statement Monday: “I can’t help bring my agency into the 21st century without first adopting 20th century crime-fighting techniques, such as a high-risk tactical unit that can be used to defend the 1.4 million people who rely on us to answer their emergency calls.”

Doguim emphasized that Harris County no longer should just rely on other agencies and should, in fact, be ready to help its law enforcement brethren respond to large-scale disasters — a Columbine-style high school shooting, a series of simultaneous terrorist attacks such as the ones in Mumbai in 2008, or riots. He also suggested that as the agency responsible for security at the Port of Houston, the sheriff’s office needs to have a team in place to respond to a terrorist attack.

“If, God forbid, there are multiple incidents around the city or the country, we too have to be able to step up to the law enforcement table,” Doguim said.

The sheriff’s departments of Travis, Bexar and Tarrant counties have SWAT teams. Travis County has two, one for the jails and one for the streets. Tarrant County’s sheriff has direct jurisdiction over only about 40,000 people, said the department’s executive administrator, Terry Grisham.

“I’m frankly a little bit surprised that Harris County doesn’t already have one,” Grisham said.

A starter unit

The high-risk operations unit is akin to a starter SWAT team. The unit will receives specialized training and equipment. It will assist patrol deputies on risky assignments, such as arrests of people suspected or known to be armed. But it will not lead responses to hostage situations or other standoffs that could involve gunfire. Doguim set no timetable for the high-risk unit’s graduation to full-fledged SWAT status.

“This is not a level of competency or capability that you get to overnight,” he said.

The deputies’ union has no position on the new unit, and its complaints about lack of patrol deputies centered primarily on Garcia’s decision to pull some deputies into internal affairs to clear out a backlog of inherited complaints against officers.

A sheriff’s spokesman has said clearing the backlog actually gets deputies back on the streets after having been assigned administrative duties while their cases are pending. He added that department also has put new academy graduates and transfers from other departments on patrol duty.

DNA tests help Harris County catch thieves while crimes in Houston go unsolved

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:20:22 +0000

So far this year in Houston, 47,000 people have called police to report that burglars had ripped them off by breaking into their cars or homes. That’s bad enough, but what’s worse? The crooks will probably never be caught.
“The rate of solving burglaries is abysmal,” said Pat Lykos, the Harris County District Attorney.

Crime statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice and HPD show the majority of burglaries in Houston — some 92 percent — do not result in arrests. That’s worse than the national average of 88 percent. With so few burglars getting caught, it’s one crime that — in Houston, at least — seems to pay.

“It’s more than frustrating, it’s disheartening. Why does government exist? It exists to protect people, and we’re not protecting people, “said Lykos.

A big part of the problem is the nature of the crime. Very often, there are no witnesses. And the sheer volume of burglaries makes it tough for HPD detectives to devote much time to any one of them.

But there may be a way to fight back, and it’s right out of any episode of “CSI”: using DNA tests, the same sophisticated molecular tests more often associated with solving murders and rapes.

“Property crime tests? We’re doing about a thousand of these per year,” said Roger Kahn, head of the DNA lab at the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office.”It’s extraordinarily successful.”

Unlike the City of Houston’s overwhelmed and troubled crime lab, Harris County operates its own crime lab at the Medical Examiner’s office in the Texas Medical Center.

It runs DNA tests for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office — now hundreds of them a year. And when those tests are for property crimes, including burglaries, the lab gets a match in well over half the cases, giving sheriff’s detectives a big break in identifying the burglars. Kahn explains that burglars are often career criminals who’ve already been arrested and had DNA taken and filed in a database.

For Harris County detectives, it’s allowing them to solve at least 10 percent more burglaries, according to Lt. Jeff Stauber. Asked if they are catching more burglars than in past years, Stauber replied, “Absolutely.”

One recent case involved a burglar who detectives said went into a home in north Harris County by breaking a bathroom window. In the process, the burglar apparently suffered a cut. Deputies were able to gather blood evidence left behind.

The deputies then got a tip about man at a nearby pawn shop selling the guitars believed to be stolen from the house.
“They got the guitar amp on the counter there,” said Cory Friedrich, a deputy investigator who’s working the case, as he watched video from a security camera at the pawn shop.

In the video, the man can be seen replacing a bandage tied around his hand. Deputies tracked him down and persuaded him to allow them to take a swab of the inside of his cheek, the standard method for gathering a sample of DNA.

Deputies said when the county’s lab ran the swab sample, it matched the DNA in the blood found at the crime scene. Lt. Stauber said it clinched the case.

“Absolutely. That put him inside the house,” Stauber said.

Harris County isn’t the only police agency using DNA for property crimes. Denver police have used it to increase burglary prosecutions there by 800 percent.

Will Houston police follow suit? Not anytime soon. Consider that in the past year, HPD used DNA tests for burglaries a mere 25 times.

“The City of Houston simply doesn’t have the capability, their crime lab is so overwhelmed,” said Lykos. She’s pushing for federal funds to greatly expand the county’s DNA lab so it can start doing testing for departments in the region.

“It’s an absolutely incredible crime-fighting tool,” said Lykos.

And if it were used in the City of Houston, maybe more burglars might actually get caught.

Code Blue on Red Texas

admin — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:24:45 +0000

Texas might be going the way of California: a majority-minority state, increasingly urban, more democratic. But can Democrats really change the kick-ass state?

Read the full text of the article here.

DHS Secretary Napolitano and ICE Assistant Secretary Morton Announce That the Secure Communities Initiative Identified More Than 111,000 Criminal Aliens in Its First Year

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:14:43 +0000

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton today announced that ICE’s Secure Communities initiative—a partnership with local law enforcement agencies that uses biometrics to identify and remove criminal aliens—identified more than 111,000 criminal aliens in local custody during its first year.

Secure Communities provides our local partners with an effective tool to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety,” said Secretary Napolitano. “We will continue to expand these partnerships to provide a force multiplier for ICE’s immigration enforcement efforts across the country.”

“Access to timely and accurate information about state and local arrests is critical to identifying dangerous criminal aliens,” said Morton. “By utilizing unique biometric information Secure Communities dramatically increases the accuracy of criminal alien identifications.”

The results announced today are the product of enhanced interoperability between DHS’ US-VISIT and the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division criminal biometrics program—technology that streamlines information sharing to enhance public safety.

Secretary Napolitano and Assistant Secretary Morton also announced today that the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department will be the next jurisdiction to participate in Secure Communities—joining 95 jurisdictions across 11 states that currently utilize Secure Communities.

Since its inception in October 2008, Secure Communities has identified more than 11,000 aliens charged or convicted with Level 1 crimes, such as murder, rape and kidnapping—1,900 of which have already been removed from the United States—and more than 100,000 aliens convicted of Level 2 and 3 crimes, including burglary and serious property crimes.

At today’s announcement, Secretary Napolitano and Assistant Secretary Morton projected that Secure Communities will have a presence in every state by 2011 and be available to every law enforcement agency in the nation by 2013. Currently, DHS prioritizes the deployment of Secure Communities to jurisdictions with the highest volume of dangerous criminal aliens.

“Secure Communities is one of the programs that enhance our efforts to keep the peace in the largest urban area in Texas,” said Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia. “My department was the first local law enforcement agency in the country to adopt the program. Now, a year later, we continue to use it as a technological ‘safety net’ to help identify inmates who, having been placed in my custody for allegedly committing a crime under state law, may also be illegal immigrants.”

Secure Communities operates jointly between DHS, the Department of Justice and participating law enforcement partners to automatically check the digital fingerprints of individuals arrested and booked at the local level against DHS’ biometrics-based immigration records in addition to FBI databases—allowing ICE to take appropriate action to ensure that dangerous criminal aliens are not released back into communities.

For more information, visit www.ice.gov.

Locals hail signing of landmark hate crimes bill

admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:31:25 +0000

President Barack Obama, on Oct. 28, signed into law a new hate crimes bill that grants federal authorities wider-ranging jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated crimes. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is the most comprehensive and inclusive law passed in decades.

Previous hate crimes legislation imposes tougher penalties on criminals who target their victims because of race, religion or national origin. The new HCPA expands federal protections to include victims of crimes based on perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability. In doing so, HCPA permits FBI involvement and support at the state level, thereby filling preexisting loopholes.

Like all hate crimes legislation, HCPA does not punish people for beliefs or speech; rather, its aim is to punish criminal actions.

The new bill is named for two high-profile victims of hate crimes: Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was tortured and murdered in 1998; and James Byrd, Jr., a 49-year-old African-American who was brutally lynched in Jasper, Texas, the same year.

The Houston-based Anti-Defamation League Southwest Regional office hosted a press conference last Wednesday, lauding the landmark bill’s signing. The ADL was part of a broad coalition that championed the legislation, which was more than a dozen years in the making, and worked toward its passage.

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia and FBI Special Agent Kristin Rehler, who supervises hate crime investigations, were among the law enforcement officials at the event. State Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-137, who has backed hate crimes legislation in Texas and praised the federal bill, also attended. They were joined by ADL leaders and local representatives from other civil rights organizations.

Present also were Albert and Laticia Galvin, parents of Spring, Texas, Latio teen David Ritcheson, who suffered severe beating, torture and sexual assault in a hate crime attack in April 2006. Ritcheson later took his own life, on July 1, 2007. A few months before, he testified before Congress in support of the expanded hate crimes bill. ADL helped organize Ritcheson’s crucial testimony.

“This really means a lot to us,” reflected Albert, in an interview with the JH-V. “I didn’t think it was ever going to get done. We just wish that David was here to see this. He did a lot, personally, to help get this bill passed, testifying before Congress.”

The victim’s mother, Laticia, added, “After David, the first thing I thought about was all the people who may go through a horror like this – now, they will have something on their side.”

The ADL’s Martin Cominsky, during the press conference’s opening, said that the HCPA sends a clear message that all Americans, regardless of background and persuasion, are protected by law.

“We herald this law as a new day in the fight against hate and bigotry, against all minorities,” Cominsky observed.

FBI Special Agent Kristin Rehler explained the necessity of having a federal hate crimes law that includes protection of the GLBT community. “More than 15 percent of all hate crimes reported over the past decade have involved the victims’ sexual orientation. It is the third most prevalent type of hate crime, following racial and religiously motivated crimes,” she pointed out.

Agent Rehler noted that the number of crimes based on sexual orientation recently increased to over 1,200 – the highest number in five years. “According to current FBI statistics, there is nearly one hate crime incident every hour of every day in this country,” she reported.

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said, “The Shepard-Byrd Act will give local law enforcement agencies needed federal support through training, or through direct assistance, to ensure that hate crime violence is investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

He continued, “The reality for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, and law enforcement in this region and around the country, is that budgets are tight. And, public safety’s needs are extremely high. We need crime-fighting assistance wherever we can get it, and we welcome it from Washington, D.C.”

State Rep. Scott Hochberg spoke about the importance of having hate crimes legislation. Rep. Hochberg currently sits on the state’s appropriations committee, and has worked successfully to strengthen prosecution of skinhead gangs and other violent hate groups in Texas.

He noted that the new HCPA law, in particular, will aid prosecutors in smaller communities, who otherwise lack the resources and preparation to go after hate crime perpetrators. He added that the expanded legislation also will encourage prosecutors, who otherwise might be unwilling to act, to do so with assistance from the federal government.

“I get asked on regular occasions: Why are hate crimes different? Why have a special law for hate crimes?” Rep. Hochberg said. “We attempt to base our punishments on the impact that a crime has on its victims. When you have a hate crime, you’re talking about victims that are an entire community.

“If you look at something as simple as vandalism, writing ‘John loves Mary’ on a train trestle clearly is very different than drawing a swastika on the side of a synagogue. Burning a couple of sticks becomes a very different crime if those sticks are arranged into a cross and planted on somebody’s yard.

“So, the impact of hate crimes is huge – not only on the direct victim, but the entire community that they represent,” he pointed out.

Quoting from a nationwide ADL program that promotes respect and challenges prejudice and bigotry, Rep. Hochberg concluded, “What this acts says is not only Houston, not only Texas, but this nation will be ‘No Place for Hate.’”

Welcome!

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:48:43 +0000

As a Harris County resident, you should expect your sheriff to be a visible part of the community who works every day to make our communities safer.

And with my reform agenda for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, that is exactly what I am working to do. Please take a minute to explore this website and, of course, I am always happy to hear your ideas or concerns.

Sheriff Garcia