Sheriff asks commissioners for phased raises, investigative overtime and patrol expansion

Sheriff Gonzalez urged Commissioners Court to approve multi-year pay increases aimed at narrowing regional pay disparities and stabilizing law-enforcement staffing. In his opening, he proposed a three-year approach that would start with "a minimum 7% pay increase for deputies and 9% for our sergeants, lieutenant, and captains," with the goal of reducing outsourcing and improving retention through 2027.

Gonzalez also requested $3,000,000 to fund an investigative overtime program to accelerate work on complex cases — child abuse, domestic violence and aggravated robberies — that he said are slowing case processing and delaying adjudication. He told the court that faster case movement in courts is the most effective long-term lever to reduce jail outsourcing, but that workforce stabilization is also necessary: he reported approximately 350 open PCNs (about 150 patrol, 150 detention officers) and noted two upcoming academy graduations would add roughly 100 deputies in the near term. "If we could really expedite some things more on the court side, I think it would really help mitigate things the most," he said.

Commissioners asked how much jail-outsourcing costs could be mitigated by additional detention officers; the sheriff reiterated that both hiring and court-processing speed are needed. He described other priorities: a new District 6 substation, expansion of crisis-intervention teams, investment in recruiting and background checks, tele-deputy units for non-emergency calls, and funding for body-worn camera backlog processing and court bailiff positions to reduce case delays. The sheriff and commissioners signaled follow-up questions on implementation, phasing and metrics for measuring impact on jail outsourcing.