Brothers and Sisters:
We wanted to take a moment to address the rumors about twelve-hour shifts. As Keith and I took office over a year and a half ago we heard a continuing concern, from both tiers, about staffing. Over the past year, Keith and I have been working hard to put pressure on the Sheriff concerning the staffing issues within the Sheriff’s Office. Whether it was detention officers working an unreasonable amount of overtime or Law Enforcement witnessing a rapidly growing county and no added positions to help with the increased workload, we knew the union could not be silent anymore.
Due to your concerns, a billboard was placed on IH-10 drawing attention to the staffing issues in the jail. Because of the pressure from the staffing campaign, we went from only 61 Deputies hired, in 2019, to a 311% increase in 2020. A total of 263 Deputies hired in just one year. Although, we saw amazing growth in the hiring of the 263 deputies, retention was an issue because that same year 220 people retired, resigned or were terminated. It was a punch in the gut for all involved in trying to fix an eleven-year problem.
Keith and I spoke with the Board of Directors and moved us in a different direction pointing out the long-term effects of working elongated hours. We were able to find an amazing asset in Dr. Stacey Speedlin who conducted a survey outlining the dissatisfaction with the current working conditions in the Sheriff’s Office. With the release of the survey, press conferences, and appeals to commissioner’s court this again added more pressure to the Sheriff to address retention issues. In eleven years, no one, not the Union, the Sheriff or the Commissioners has even attempted to fix the staffing issues till now.
Multiple meetings sometimes with over 20 department heads from different County offices have been working to address jail diversion programs, reduce inmate population, which all affect overtime and retention issues. Detention Administration is trying to add new programs like the Unity of Command to help mentor troops to build relationships in an attempt to retain new Deputies. Furthermore, they will attempt to go to a twelve-hour shift.
Many have called and asked us what is the Union going to do to stop twelve-hour shifts. As stated before, the Union took on this fight to affect change in staffing, which you asked us to do. It falls on the Sheriff and his Administration to decide how to fix the problem. They have offered a solution through twelve-hour shifts, which is within their rights under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It would be unreasonable for us to ask for change then complain when the change comes.
We know two things for certain: first, what we are doing right now is not working, it’s only getting worse and it has to change. Will twelve-hour shifts work? Only time will tell. The second thing we know for certain is that you have our promise that if it doesn’t, we’ll be back putting pressure on the Sheriff just as we did before until a workable solution is found.
In Solidarity,
Jeremy Payne, President
Deputy Sheriff’s Association