LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock County Sheriff Kelly Rowe says his office’s budget has not kept pace with the county’s growth, leaving deputies underpaid, positions unfilled and residents at risk.
He shared some of those concerns at an early budget discussion with county commissioners.
The Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office currently has 17 vacancies. Rowe said pay disparities are causing the agency to lose experienced deputies to higher-paying employers, and that training a replacement takes years.
“On day one, do you believe that they could walk in to an interview room with a murder suspect and talk them into a confession? No, that takes years to develop the skills to be able to go in and be successful in conducting that one aspect of the job,” Rowe said.
Vacancies straining patrol and investigations
Rowe said a portion of those vacancies accounts for a third of his entire patrol division. To fill gaps, the agency is pulling more experienced deputies, like criminal investigators, into patrol duties.
“What that translates to is if you’ve got a pending case, a burglary of your home or something that our criminal investigator’s doing, the case may slow down because they’re working patrol and not being able to work your case,” Rowe said.
Chief Administrator Dan Corbin said even when an entry-level deputy leaves, the sheriff’s office has already invested $25,000 to $30,000 in that person.
“Our deputies…they didn’t want to leave. They enjoyed working here. They’re happy to work here. But…when I can make $20,000 working just down the street, and better provide for my family, well, you know, that’s a no-brainer a lot of times,” Corbin said.
Response times, overtime and burnout
At any given time, five deputies are patrolling the 900 square miles that make up Lubbock County. Rowe recounted a story involving a county commissioner who was riding with a deputy.
“He was riding with the deputy and the deputy just on his own volition just said, what’s your address? And he punched it in his system. And he said, ‘I just want you to know, Commissioner, that if your wife was calling right now and somebody was either trying to break in the house or do her harm in some way, it would take us 15 and a half minutes from where we are right now to get to your house,’” Rowe said.
The county is currently spending $3 million a year in overtime for deputies to sit with inmates who must be transported to the hospital. Rowe is requesting six additional positions at the detention center. He said mandatory overtime is also contributing to employee burnout.
“There’s nothing more valuable to them than their ability to take their time off, to decompress, to unload, and deal with the challenges of the job. And yet we’re having to turn around and say, you thought you had three days off this week, but we’re going to have to get at least one, if not two of those, and require you to come in and cover,” Rowe said.
Budget requests
Rowe is again requesting four additional patrol positions he was not granted last year. The sheriff’s office is looking at a $65.9 million budget — about $350,000 more than last year. Corbin said much of that increase is contractually obligated, driven by inflation-related price increases for inmate food and deputies’ fuel.
Rowe said it would take an additional $7.5 million to make salaries more competitive.
“If I send any message to that commissioner’s court and to the citizens of Lubbock County is these people are not readily replaceable,” Rowe said.
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