One year after approving salary increases and a policy to incentivize sheriff’s deputies to stick around, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office is down to zero vacant positions in its law enforcement division and has made significant progress toward reducing vacancies in the jail.
Staff shortages and mandatory overtime have been a pervasive issue over the last decade, as a significant portion of the Bexar County Adult Detention Center’s population requires intense supervision due to mental health issues.
“We have made great strides in reducing detention vacancies, reaching the lowest levels seen in years,” Sheriff Javier Salazar told the San Antonio Report Wednesday. “In the face of a nationwide staffing shortage, we have upheld our highest standards and successfully attracted qualified applicants, a result of the salary increase approved by the commissioners court.”
Forcing deputies to work overtime is both expensive and negatively affects their morale, officials have said. The detention division of the sheriff’s office now has about 100 vacancies, compared to about 200 in November. There are about 170 cadets currently in training across six classes to fill some of those roles, according to officials.
“By streamlining the path to patrol, this program has not only enhanced our ability to protect and serve the community but has also reduced the overtime burden on our existing deputies, ensuring they can continue to provide the high level of service that Bexar County residents expect and deserve,” Ron Tooke, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Bexar County, said in a press release.
Both Tooke and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai credited the collaboration between the sheriff’s office, Commissioners Court and the union for the establishment and apparent success of the new policies.
So far, the county hasn’t seen a direct financial benefit from the reduction of vacancies, but Sakai expects to realize those soon.
“I’m expecting those overtime costs to come down,” he said Wednesday evening after a budget town hall. “At this time, they have not come down significantly.”
The “straight to the streets” policy allows Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar to place newly hired deputies directly on patrol, without requiring them to first serve two years at the jail as detention officers. After 34 weeks of training and acquisition of a peace officer’s license, aspiring deputies can skip detention if they prefer.
“In the history of the sheriff’s office … we can’t find a time that anybody was ever able to directly test over into the law enforcement side” without first serving as a detention officer, Salazar said after the incentive policies were approved last year.
Modern workers expect “that flexibility and having more control over how your career path looks,” he said. “[It] makes all the difference in the world.”
The program also creates a path for current detention officers to transition to patrol, but it incentivizes workers to remain at the jail by giving them preference for more competitive patrol jobs in the future if they serve at the jail first.
“We are confident that we will continue to close the gap on detention vacancies, rendering them a matter of the past,” Salazar said.
Andrea Drusch contributed to this report.
