Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman addressed the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce at its Oct. 2 luncheon.[/caption]Since taking office in May, Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman has set out to restructure the sheriff’s office and find ways to increase overall efficiency.
“I’ve served in Harris County law enforcement for 30-plus years,” Hickman said. “I had a fair idea of some of the issues that were present in the department that kept it from being as successful as I’d like for it to be. I have a technical background, and I look for efficiencies in leveraging technology. It’s a challenge we face in law enforcement.”
Hickman presented an update on several facets of the Harris County sheriff’s office at the Oct. 2 Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
The department’s $445.7 million budget is now divided into three sections with $204.2 million allocated to law enforcement, $180.6 million budgeted for criminal justice detention and courts and $60.9 million allotted for medical services, Hickman said. Harris County Commissioners Court approved the division of the three budget sections at its Sept. 29 meeting, he said.
“The budget office had been looking at this approach for several years now,” Hickman said. “When I came into office, we began discussions. Moving forward, that allows us to keep our money moving where it’s supposed to and allows us to get along more efficiently.”
Managing growth
The county, which is patrolled by 715 officers, is also looking to increase partnerships with local constable agencies to address a steady increase in service calls, Hickman said.
“We’re looking for ways to use them as force multipliers to increase the level of interaction and cooperation with Tomball, Jersey Village and Houston and find ways to make our overall efficiency better,” he said.
As the county continues to see unprecedented growth, Hickman said he has canceled $8.5 million in service contracts since entering office to better allocate funds in the budget and give local businesses a chance to bid on new projects.
“We grow by about 80,000 new people a year coming to Harris County,” Hickman said. “About 40,000 [of that growth] is in unincorporated Harris County, which is now about equivalent to the [population] of the city of Houston.”
“We grow by about 80,000 new people a year coming to Harris County. About 40,000 [of that growth] is in unincorporated Harris County, which is now about equivalent to the [population] of the city of Houston.”
—Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman
Harris County Jail
Of the 4,690 sheriff’s office employees, a majority work at the Harris County Jail and oversee an estimated 9,000 inmates, Hickman said. About 6,600 of the inmates are awaiting trial in the jail, including many who have waited more than six years, he said.
Hickman said he plans to continue finding ways to move inmates with costly medical expenses more quickly through the court system.
“We have a number of people who are right at a $250,000 mark [in medical expenses],” Hickman said. “In the meantime, you have to pay for it with tax dollars. We work with the court systems to create a special medical impact court, so if an inmate is costing us a lot of money in expenses, we elevate the priority to get those cases heard as quickly as possible.”
For inmates, Harris County spends about $3.1 million for psychotropic medication and $5.3 million for HIV medication each year. In addition, the county spends about $22 million each year for inmate mental health services.
“One of my biggest concerns was inmate medical and mental health,” Hickman said. “Inmate medical services cost us more than the money we spend on people that are not in jail. You spend $22 million a year for me to operate one of the largest mental health facilities in Texas.”
Hickman said it is a challenge to address growing needs for inmate mental health and medical services. The county, which employs 12 psychologists, continues to look for additional staff to work with inmates at the jail, he said.
Homeless outreach program
In an effort to divert homeless individuals away from the jail, Hickman has helped develop a homeless outreach team with a $100,000 donation through a public and private partnership. The funding will provide for a pilot program expected to launch in mid-October that will concentrate on tackling homelessness along FM 1960 and providing individuals with resources, he said.
“As the city of Houston works harder on their homeless, we seem to have an increasing amount of homelessness in our area,” Hickman said. “FM 1960 and Hwy. 249 are a haven for homeless activity. We have homeless camps in much of the wooded areas around. The jail is not the best place for every social problem we have.”
There are more than 5,000 homeless individuals in unincorporated Harris County, according to U.S. Census data projections. The sheriff’s office offers fingerprint devices to allow officers to identify homeless individuals without identification cards and connect them with a network of services to receive aid, Hickman said.
“One of the biggest challenges for the homeless is many have no identification,” Hickman said. “They’ve long since lost their driver’s license, Social Security card and military IDs. For veteran services, social security or something else that is available, identification is the first place to start. We’re making progress.”
