Lubbock County sheriff asks court to fund step-pay fixes, patrol and jail hospital staff amid rising overtime

Lubbock CountySheriffpresented the departmentbudget request and asked the Commissioners Court to approve a two-year correction to the departmentstep-pay chart and to fund new deputies and detention staff to address rising overtime and changing workload.

The sheriff told the court the office has moved from chronic vacancies to near full staffing and that the largest budget pressure is pay structure and personnel. "We have attained full staffing," the sheriff said, "barring just the day-to-day changes." He urged the court to act quickly on vehicle and equipment requests to avoid high costs and limited availability later in the summer.

Nut graf: The sheriffasked the court to approve a roughly $400,000 correction to wage steps (spread across two years), to remove overlapping start steps that discourage promotion, and to fund four new patrol positions, two compliance deputies for gaming/entertainment-business inspections and a multi-year plan to add detention staff for hospital duty. He warned that detention overtime is already large and that medical transports and an aging jail population are increasing costs and operational strain.

Step-pay, promotions and pay compression Sheriff office leaders described a step-pay chart implemented in 2013 that has compressed pay at the top of the scale and distressed promotions from staff sergeant to lieutenant. The department proposed eliminating certain probationary steps for junior ranks (PSO 4 and PSO 5) at a cost the sheriff said is about $25,000, and adjusting lieutenant pay so a promoted staff sergeant would not take a pay cut. The sheriffand his chiefs presented two figures for correcting the compression: roughly $245,000 to address lieutenant-level compression and about $400,000 total across the two-year fix if the court approves the full package.

"For a step 5 staff sergeant to promote, they're actually taking a $1,500 approximately pay cut," Chief Corbin told the court while explaining why the adjustment is needed to keep people from declining promotion.

Detention overtime, hospital duty and health-care costs Sheriff office and detention leaders told the court hospital escorts and medical transports are a major overtime driver. Chief Reed said the jail needs between 16 and 20 officers dedicated to hospital duty to reduce mandatory call-ins and overtime; the department is requesting four positions per year over four years to reach 16 total. Reed said the jail paid roughly 32,000 overtime-equivalent hours for hospital coverage during a prior period and that detention overtime could exceed $2 million this fiscal year.

"We're always going to have some overtime, but I'd rather pay someone straight time than time-and-a-half," Reed said, explaining the hospital-duty request.

Sheriff personnel and proposed patrol/compliance positions Sheriff leaders requested four additional patrol deputies, to shift capacity toward proactive patrol during evening hours when two-officer responses (domestics, shots fired, violent calls) have risen 38% from 2020 to 2024. The request also includes two full-time compliance deputies focused on game rooms, adult-entertainment and other regulated businesses in unincorporated county areas. Sheriff staff said earlier licensing and permitting work moved to another office but inspections remain a patrol responsibility; two full-time inspectors would allow consistent weekly inspections of roughly 36 existing unincorporated establishments.

The sheriff outlined a separate reclassification: converting an investigator position to staff sergeant in CID to provide an extra first-line supervisor, a change the sheriffsaid would cost roughly $3,200 including benefits.

Budget tradeoffs and next steps Sheriff leaders acknowledged that some of these fixes and additions are phased: the step-pay adjustment would be done over two years to spread cost; the detention hospital staffing is proposed as four positions per year across five years to reach full staffing. The court pressed for dollar figures and phasing. The sheriff said vehicle and equipment timing matter: buying late in summer reduces choices and raises costs.

Ending: The sheriff's presentation did not conclude with a formal vote; commissioners asked staff to include the sheriff's requests in the ongoing budget worksheets and to return with cost scenarios for the court to compare alongside other departmental requests.