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Sheriffs in Texas are elected law enforcement officers who enforce criminal laws, supervise county jails, provide security to the courts, and enforce court orders in civil and criminal cases.
Each of the 254 counties in Texas has a sheriff, as required by the Texas Constitution. Elected sheriffs hold a four-year term of office. If a vacancy arises, the County Commissioners Court may appoint a new sheriff to serve until the next general election.
Duties
The duties of county sheriffs in Texas are established by state law.
As a law enforcement officer, also called a peace officer, the sheriff has powers to arrest violators of state laws. The Code of Criminal Procedure (Art. 2.17) says, “Each sheriff shall be a conservator of the peace in his county, and shall arrest all offenders against the laws of the State, in his view or hearing, and take them before the proper court for examination or trial.”
Additionally, the sheriff has a broad mandate to preserve order in his jurisdiction. The Code says, “He shall quell and suppress all assaults and batteries, affrays, insurrections and unlawful assemblies. He shall apprehend and commit to jail all offenders, until an examination or trial can be had.”
Other duties include:
- Enforcing court orders such as evictions;
- Seizing property and assets on court orders;
- Serving warrants and legal papers;
- Managing and operating the county jail;
- Regulating bail bondsmen in counties with no bail bond board;
- Convening semiannual meetings on school safety (in smaller counties);
- Serving as tax assessor-collector in counties with a population of less than 10,000 inhabitants;
- Summoning grand jurors at the direction of a court.
As explained in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, the sheriff is required to provided to provide jurors “with such necessary food and lodging as he can obtain. No intoxicating liquor shall be furnished them.”
Qualifications
To serve as sheriff a person must be at least 21 years of age, must not have been convicted of a felony, and must have a a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate. The age requirement is lowered if the person has served at least two years in the U.S. military or completed 60 hours of college credit hours.
As a type of law enforcement officer, also called a peace officer, a county sheriff must obtain a license from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement within a year of taking office, if the sheriff does not already have such a license.
County sheriffs in Texas are also subject to a requirement to execute a bond before performing the duties of office, in an amount established by the commissioners court, between $5,000 and $30,000.
Deputy Sheriffs
With the permission of the county commissioners court, the sheriff may hire deputies to perform his duties, and he may call up a reserve force of reserve deputies in cases of emergency.
Reserve deputy sheriffs are appointees of the sheriff, on the authorization of the commissioners court. They may be called into service if the sheriff considers it necessary to have additional officers to preserve the peace and enforce the law. This system is a vestige of the “sheriff’s posse,” an armed escort as seen in Western films.
County Jailers
Sheriff’s departments typically employ correctional officers to operate the county jail.
FAQ
A sheriff is an elected law enforcement officer who apprehends fugitives, runs a county jail, and leads a team of sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement personnel, among other duties.
Each sheriff’s department has county-wide jurisdiction within its respective county. However, in counties with large cities, sheriff’s departments mostly concentrates their activities outside city limits where municipal police officers cannot operate. This means that sheriff’s departments mostly operate in rural and suburban areas.
Police departments are created by cities whereas sheriff’s departments are run by counties. A chief of police is not elected whereas a sheriff is elected. Police only have jurisdiction within a city’s boundaries whereas sheriffs have countywide jurisdiction. Sheriffs run a county jail and transport prisoners to local courts, whereas police usually are not involved in running a jail or providing security to courts. Despite their differences, sheriffs and police share jurisdiction in many matters and frequently cooperate.
As peace officers, sheriffs operate under standards set by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. The jails that they run are regulated by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The Texas judiciary plays a critical role in ensuring the due process rights of criminal defendants arrested by sheriffs and their deputies. The budget and procedures of sheriff’s departments are subject to oversight by the county commissioners court in their county. In cases of incompetency, official misconduct, or intoxication, sheriffs can be removed from office by a district court following a jury trial.
