Sheriff Message

Today we celebrated three recently retired K9s – Gerard, Lucky, and Rico – and wished them well as they take in some much-deserved rest and relaxation with their handlers. They were issued their last shift on duty and are enjoying their golden years.

Each K9 partner was presented with a retirement certificate and Sgt. Chris Moore, who serves as the K9 Unit’s trainer and lead supervisor, shared their career highlights and success stories.

These K9s and their handlers functioned as a team from the start – entering our handler training course together to learn a broad range of instruction and critical support to get certified as a pair. Our four-legged partners are skilled assets who help us apprehend wanted suspects, locate missing persons, identify explosives, and seize narcotics and jail contraband. They are partners in every sense of the word.

Our K9 Unit is an integral part of our day-to-day operations. One of the main goals of this unit it to increase the safety of our patrol deputies. In many cases, deployed K9s are the first in contact with a suspect, giving deputies space and reaction time to have them surrender without incident.

We’re grateful for their faithful years of service and dedication to our teammates and community. We cherish them and take great pride in their contributions.

Meet the Retired K9s

K9 Gerard is a 12-year-old K9 trained to identify explosives and track a scent. He has worked alongside his handler, Deputy Love, on 421 patrol deployments, 270 captures, and 110 explosive sweeps. In 2018, K9 Gerard and Deputy Love were honored by the 100 Club for apprehending a suspect who shot and wounded a Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constable. K9 Gerard has conducted numerous explosive sweeps at city-wide events, such as Super Bowl LI. He has 8 years of public service.

Click here to meet Gerard and Deputy Love.

K9 Lucky is a 10-year-old K9 trained to identify explosives and track a scent. He has worked with handler, Deputy Bair, on 332 patrol deployments, 88 captures, and 151 explosive sweeps. He has conducted numerous explosive sweeps at city-wide events, including Super Bowl LI. In 2015, he responded to an officer-involved shooting, deploying at the scene and tracking the suspect’s shotgun to a wooded area. He has 7 years and 5 months of public service with more than 2,400 training hours.

Click here to meet Lucky and Deputy Bair.

K9 Rico is a 9-year-old K9 trained to identify narcotics and track a scent. He has worked alongside his handler, former Deputy Troy Guidry, on 127 patrol deployments, 48 captures, and 98 narcotic operations. Additionally, the team helped train handlers from the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies – dedicating about 160 hours per month to the instruction. K9 Rico has more than 6 years of public service with more than 3,100 training hours.

Click here to meet Rico and Waller County Sheriff Guidry.

Public Safety Forums

At the Sheriff’s Office, we pride ourselves on working with you to keep our neighborhoods safe.

On Tuesday, Patrol District IV led a virtual public safety forum for west Harris County residents with a key presentation from our High-Tech Crimes Unit on internet safety and ways we can protect our children online no matter how they access the web. Sgt. Ortiz, who leads our newly formed Traffic Crimes Unit, provided an update on our efforts to combat the rise in street racing and street takeovers and Dr. McNeese, a forensic and clinical psychologist with our Behavioral Health Division, shared how our agency is providing mental health services and support to our teammates.

Public safety forums are an opportunity for you to join your neighbors and patrol district leaders for a meaningful discussion about public safety issues in your neighborhood. They are also an opportunity for you to learn more about our initiatives, to ask questions, and to share any concerns with the very leaders patrolling and protecting your block.

Stay Informed

Each of our five patrol districts has started hosting regular virtual safety forums with support and updates from various agency leaders. If you’re interested in being notified about your district’s next meeting, fill out our interest form. By signing up today, you’re ensuring you’ll be among the first to know when the next safety forum is scheduled.

Follow Us on Social Media

In the meantime, stay connected with us by following your patrol district on Twitter and our agency on Nextdoor. You will receive breaking news, missing persons and wanted suspects alerts, crime prevention resources, and more.

A safe and compassionate community requires constant attention, care, and collaboration. Thank you for your partnership, and for joining us on this journey.

Read More…

We welcomed 60 new deputies to our Sheriff’s Office family this week. The graduation ceremony – and each cadet’s pledge to our oath of office – was the culmination of resilience, teamwork, and a passion to serve others.

As each cadet prepared to celebrate this exciting milestone with our command staff, academy instructors, and loved ones, we learned two deputies were shot at by a suspect with existing felony warrants. One deputy was wounded.

Deputy Barragan, who is expected to make a full recovery, was hit several times and suffered injuries to his cheek and hands. His protective vest stopped a bullet that struck his torso. The suspected shooter, now identified as Moises Martinez, fled the scene on foot as the other deputy, Deputy Miller, returned fire and attempted to pursue him. In a matter of minutes, deputies in the area on an unrelated call were among the first to respond to the scene and quickly applied a tourniquet to Deputy Barragan’s wounds. A Precinct One deputy constable arrived on location, assisting the responding deputies with getting the wounded deputy to medical care.

Deputy Decatur and his partner Deputy Alegria drove our teammate to a nearby hospital in a patrol vehicle. The responding deputies’ swift actions and training were instrumental in getting him the care he needed.

After a scene investigation and active search, Martinez was taken into custody without further incident. We’re grateful to our law enforcement partners across the region for always rallying behind us. We’re also grateful for your outpouring of prayers and positive messages – comforting words we’ve come to expect during scary moments like this.

Tuesday evening was a grave reminder of the dangers of the job. But it is also served as a reminder of how we as a community support each other.

Academy Class B1-2020

This academy class pressed on despite the uncertainty and necessary restrictions brought on by the pandemic, reimagined instruction, and the sudden and heartbreaking loss of a classmate and friend, Cadet Cornelius Anderson.

B1-2020, you will always be remembered for your strength and unwavering commitment to be there for one another. You vowed to carry on Cadet Anderson’s dream of becoming a deputy by following your calling in the face of hardship.

Cadet Anderson possessed a positive spirit and love for our profession that continues to inspire everyone at the Sheriff’s Office. His memory is sewn into every stitch of the uniforms worn by our new deputies.

During their journey, the cadets embraced change when academy instructors temporarily moved in-person classroom instruction to a virtual platform. They remained flexible when tests were re-scheduled, and the hands-on training was altered to comply with public health measures.

Most importantly, they closed ranks and leaned on each other and their instructors through it all.

To make it to graduation, cadets engaged in 1,696 hours of training curriculum ranging from classroom instruction to simulations to emergency vehicle operation. The training topics included critical crisis intervention, de-escalation techniques, tactical communications, Texas Penal Code, and Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

This academy training lays the foundation for a deputy’s entire law enforcement career and equips them with the knowledge, tools, skills, and mindset to provide a safe and humane response to calls for service. The bonds and camaraderie built over the past six months will last a lifetime.

This class’s motto is “Be the Change.” We cannot think of a more fitting motto. Their roles as public servants are vital in this pivotal moment. At the podium on Tuesday, I challenged them to lead policing into a new era with empathy, respect, and understanding. I asked each of them to hold on to this sentiment throughout their career as peace offers.

I also challenged those in our ranks who came before them to: Guide them. Mentor them. Show them how to honor the badge they wear and carry as a symbol of public faith and trust.

This is just the beginning. These deputies are preparing to enter field training. It’s another crucial step to ensure we’re doing all we can to best serve you.

We are so incredibly proud of them and wish them well. Join me in celebrating this well-deserved achievement.

Read More…

The Sheriff’s Office recognizes Stalking Awareness Month and advocates for everyone’s right to feel safe in their lives and communities.

Stalking is a pattern of predatory behavior that causes a victim to feel fear for their well-being or safety. It’s often linked to intimate partner violence and can have a significant traumatic effect on its victims. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly half of stalking victims felt fear of not knowing what would happen next and experienced at least one unwanted contact with their perpetrator per week.

Last year we launched a Behavioral Threat Management Unit to tackle stalking and domestic violence incidents with a stalking nexus. The goal of the unit is to recognize and respond to threatening behaviors and to prevent volatile situations from escalating into violence.

We strive to be proactive and work toward preventing tragedies from occurring in the first place. The unit, led by Brad Rudolph, works through filed reports with a stalking nexus, carefully reviewing each case and thoroughly analyzing each piece of the puzzle. The unit’s investigator and analyst assess the circumstances from the stalking behavior to the perpetrator’s history and propensity for violence. In 2020, the unit reviewed nearly 2,000 incident reports and investigated over 30 harassment cases.

Stalking behaviors can include:

• Making unwanted phone calls
• Sending unsolicited or unwanted letters or e-mails
• Following the victim or waiting at places for them
• Inflicting property damage
• Leaving unwanted items or gifts
• Posting information or spreading rumors about the victim on the internet, in a public place, or by word of mouth

Because the crime of stalking takes place over a period of time, the unit encourages victims to keep a detailed log of the incidents that have been occurring. Even if the victim is not interested in pursuing criminal charges at the time, maintaining a log will be beneficial to law enforcement if the behavior increases or gets worse in the future.

Investigators conduct a threat assessment that focuses on identifying what are called “pre-incident indicators” or behaviors of concern to establish a pattern. Threat assessment is an evolving process where pertinent information is added and considered in real-time. An initial assessment may change significantly after a few pieces of critical information come to the surface. Several individual factors are considered and weighed, including the suspect’s mental and physical health, financial stability, support system and potential triggers. These are critical components of a meaningful threat assessment process.

The unit’s findings are often discussed at roundtable meetings with leading domestic violence partners and service organizations, including the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and Domestic Violence High Risk Team. This coordinated response against domestic violence offers additional perspective on the best path forward for each case and helps foster collaborations that maximize resources and strategies to keep the victim safe.

The intervention approach varies, but it always starts with research and an open conversation with the victim. This established communication builds rapport and instills confidence and comfort in the process.

Some cases will generate arrests, but in other cases, investigators may pursue emergency housing for the victim and a protective order against the perpetrator. Other times, they may approach it from a mental health standpoint. The unit stays involved in the investigation as the victim receives support from our partners who connect them to resources.

Let’s raise our collective voices against these incidents before they escalate into harm. As a community, we can keep an eye out for potential victims and pay attention to whether a situation seems dangerous for a friend, colleague, or family member. When you suspect something is happening, trust your instincts and say something.

Below are resources if you want to report stalking victimization:

• If you are in immediate danger, call or text 911.
• HCSO Behavioral Threat Management Unit: 713-274-4694
• National Domestic Violence Hotline: Call 1-800-799-7233 or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 22522.
• Houston Area’s Women Center’s 24/7 Hotline: 800-256-0551

We encourage victims to come to us for assistance or to reach out to one of the many organizations in our region whose mission is to end domestic violence for all.

We stand together against stalking. We are a community. And we are here to support you.

“I am passionate about threat assessment and its methodologies because we’re not just reacting to situations,” says Brad Rudolph, Behavioral Threat Management Unit Manager.

“This proactive work can save lives.”

Read More…

Our Sheriff’s Office family came together on Tuesday to celebrate Sgt. Bruce Watson’s life. We were joined by his circle of loved ones and our extended law enforcement family at the Houston Police Department (HPD) to remember a great man of faith and community. After the service, we conducted a ceremony with honors and a presentation of Sgt. Watson’s motorcycle unit helmet to his wife Tracy, a 21-year HPD veteran and our sister in blue.

The tributes to Sgt. Watson were an uplifting reminder of our camaraderie and promise to be by each other’s side. There are few undertakings so noble as the protection of your community. Sgt. Watson did just that, dedicating his life to serving others – first as a proud U.S. Army veteran, serving in Operation Desert Storm, and then as a 20-year veteran of our agency.

Sgt. Watson received burial honors from the U.S. Army following a procession to the Houston National Cemetery.

His three children – Kierra, Brianna, and Bruce – and close friend Ethan said he loved being a peace officer and everything our badges represent. He was a beloved father, husband, brother, new grandfather, and treasured member of our agency. He will be missed by his teammates at the Emergency Dispatch Center and all who had the honor of knowing him. We will honor his memory by continuing to answer the call for service.

Please continue to pray that Sgt. Watson’s family finds comfort in knowing how many lives he touched and the many young deputies in our ranks he guided and mentored to be tomorrow’s leaders. We will keep him and his family in our hearts.

Detention Officer Samuel and His Family Displaced From Their Home After Fire

Detention Officer Genaro Samuel had just finished his shift at the jail last Saturday when he learned his home became engulfed in flames. His wife, daughter, and son were in the house when the fire started but escaped safely. Sadly, the family lost nearly all their belongings.

Detention Officer Samuel and his family are staying at a hotel provided by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office Benevolence Association as they navigate the next steps and find a permanent place to live. We’re grateful for his family’s well-being and the outpouring of support they received from both teammates and residents.

Every contribution, prayer, and positive thought lifts these families and makes our agency stronger. It exemplifies what community is all about – giving back and lending a helping hand to those in need and leaning on each other during challenging times.

God bless you, and God bless the Sheriff’s Office.

Read More…