The Hockley County Sheriff Office is moving forward with allocating SB 22 funds into key areas of the department under Sheriff Ray Scifres.
The goal of the senate bill that was passed during the 2023 Texas Legislative session was to aid rural agencies with safety equipment and gear ranging from ballistic protection panels, helmets, shields and firearms. However, those items could only be addressed after each sheriff’s office dealt with the salary of its personnel.
The bill required the sheriff’s salary to be set at a minimum of $75,000, deputy salaries who are handling day-to-day responsibilities assigned are required to make a minimum $45,000 and jailers who are responsible for inmate supervision had to have a minimum salary set at $40,000 a year.
Scifres explained that those three things have already been accomplished. During the prior budget process, the commissioners court had publicized that they would close the salary gap which pushed his salary to $75,000. Deputies with the department were already making $45,000 a year and this year, the jailer salaries had gone over $40,000 as a total compensation package.
“With those three items checked, we wanted to implement an incentive program that actually will take effect on this payroll,” said Scifres. “Those that have got advanced licensor, advanced education or specified assignments within the jail or on the peace officer side have monthly overrides. They can qualify for up to three depending again on education, licensor level or assignment.”
Additionally, department personnel have the ability to get all three, two or one of the incentives. Scifres added that the incentives are there for the individuals that want to reach the next level of licensor or get an associate degree or a complete a bachelor’s degree.
“I have people in the process of both,” said Scifres. “When they reach that level, there is a component to that. We get better educated and better trained officers that are better for the community and make better decisions.”
With such a shortage of personnel across all state agencies, Scifres added that the incentive program would also help the department with recruiting and retention. He added that when individuals look for open position, it comes down to salary as everyone has bills that need to be paid.
Individuals looking at the department’s position may have questions about base salary, insurance package and fringe packages. However, something that may peak the interest of applicants is the incentive program.
“We are competitive in the region with our salary now and if you have advanced licensor or advanced education you can also make additional incentives,” said Scifres.
When putting together the incentive program, Scifres focused on a median target with room to grow in the future. Not wanting to be too low, he sampled 20 or more programs from similar areas of cities and counties to see where the best fit was for the department to remain competitive.
“With room left for growth in the future, if they want to expand, build that program or change those rates in the future they can,” added Scifres. “We did not want to go and bust the bank right out of the gate. We left a lot of room for improvement and growth over for the years, but it’s a benefit.”
Scifres added that he intentionally left himself exempted from the program as he took the sheriff out of it. However, if the new sheriff comes in they can choose to change that.
“I exempted myself from it because I would qualify for all three which would bump my salary another $5,000 a year,” said Scifres. “It is more important for the focus to be on the staff and the work that they’re doing. We need to make sure they are compensated for their training, education and professional development.”
With that in mind, Scifres explained that there is roughly $100,000 or so that set aside for that for the first year. With what is left, the department is still talking about another 200-plus almost $250,000 that can be used more for safety and security equipment.
During the first round of expending the funds, the department had the goal to replace existing hardware that is beginning to fail. Scifres explained that electronics have a life expectancy and the last set of hardware was put into the fleet around 2017.
“Here we are in 2024 and we are beyond the life expectancy of what we are asking those machines, computers and GPS systems to do,” said Scifres. “We’re looking at updated hardware and that part has been approved already through CTSI who is our our our IT contractor to to locate the equipment that we need that’s going to be good for for their use and can handle what we throw.”
When finding the right hardware, he explained it comes down to being able to run multiple platforms at the same time, making sure it has the right memory space and operating system, and is rugged enough to be in a car on a stand bobbling around.
The next expense for the department is a taser replacement. The platform of use is Axon which the department is looking to stay with as the jail currently uses it. If approved by the commissioners, the department is looking at roughly a $68,000 expenditure that would be spread out through a number of years, but the contract would be for five years.
“We have updated technology over the years little by little because it is just so expensive to swap,” said Scifres. “It would end up being in capital outlay and would be a massive expenditure.”
The plus side to being on the Axon platform is it would ensure that everyone is on the same platform including the Levelland Police Department.
“We oftentimes end up on the same calls for service and when things are are happening and uses of force might have to occur we have interchangeable hardware so we can help them and they could help us,” explained Scifres. “It’s basically the same stuff, so you’re assuring the same training on the same devices across multiple agencies. I think that is a benefit.”
In the next few months, the department will be looking at updating rifle hardware and ballistic protection. In 2017, every deputy had been issued ballistic helmets rifle plates and ballistic protection.
“For the first big ballistic purchase we are going to look at pricing, sizing and the quantity we’re gonna need for front and back panels to replace existing hardware,” said Scifres. “Beyond that, we are looking at ballistic shields.”
He explained that ballistic shields increases officer safety when they have to approach a residence and there may be the possibility somebody armed.
“Having that shields available can help us stack everybody up or get to that house, but it’s safe approach,” explained Scifres. “They don’t really have an application in the jail. The shields we have in there are not really ballistic but are more for control and officer safety. If someone’s trying to throw food, spit or throw urine at least we have some type of a a protection. They can be used in inmate control situations when you have to extract an inmate, so those are a little bit different applications of what we’re looking at for outside.”
While additional staffing has been posed in the past few months, Scifres explained that staffing is not a possibility at this point in time.
Staffing new employees is required to go through the budgeting process with the commissioners court as they statutorily approve the staffing levels if the department.
“When the budget time comes here in the next few months, we will start having conversations and entertaining topics such as staffing for 2025,” said Scifres. “By the middle of budget season, we will know who the next sheriff will be so I will ask them for their input about what he may want.”