Hays County widens net cast to hire more sheriff’s deputies

The Hays County Sheriff’s Office now has the green light to hire candidates for open positions that are not yet licensed peace offers and can send them to a peace officer academy.

How it happened

On Oct. 10, the Hays County Commissioners Court voted to grant the change. As of the time of the vote, there were 12 vacant deputy slots, according to court documents.

Now, the sheriff’s office has the flexibility to hire cadet candidates and send them to training as well as continuing to recruit new deputies who already have academy training under their belt.

“Right now for our recruiting, all we can do is recruit licensed peace officers,” Chief Deputy Mike Davenport said. “By making this change, we will be able to recruit civilians to send them to an academy, which opens up a very broad net for recruiting versus the very isolating way that we have right now. So that's the intent.”

One more thing

According to county documents, vacant slots filled by civilian candidates will be paid at a lower salary, which could result in an overall savings for the county.