Less than two weeks after several Harris County Commissioners and County Judge Lina Hidalgo publicly voiced their support for addressing deputy pay concerns during a Commissioners Court meeting, Jose Lopez, president of the Harris County Deputies Organization, says only three have followed up.
"They quickly scheduled meetings, and we sat down, and they heard us," Lopez said.
Pay is the membership's most pressing issue, and Lopez says Commissioner Rodney Ellis' office has not responded. Hidalgo's office told ABC13 they are in the process of scheduling a meeting.
"I'm not aware," Lopez said. "If that is something they are working on, they definitely haven't expressed it to us."
Under the proposed deal, starting salaries for Houston Police Department (HPD) officers would jump to $75,000, nearly $20,000 more than what a first-year deputy currently earns. Lopez says such a disparity could lead to dozens of deputies leaving the Harris County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) for better-paying HPD jobs.
"I'm hearing numbers between 60 to 70," Lopez noted.
HPD, meanwhile, is preparing for the possible influx. The department tells ABC13 they are gauging interest in academy classes for already-commissioned officers to accommodate interested deputies.
"We could have anywhere from 70 to 80 in a lateral class within a few months," Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, who openly supports recruiting from HCSO, said.
"At the end of the day, Harris County could pay them or HPD could pay them, but one way or another, we're going to have a fully staffed department," Griffith stated.
Lopez is urging commissioners to examine the current staffing crisis. He shared that on a recent Saturday night, only two deputies were assigned to patrol the entire area of Mission Bend, a densely populated section of southwest Harris County. That is half the preferred number, he said, and he fears that situation could worsen.
"I'm absolutely worried," he said.
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