Fort Bend Sheriff’s Office hopes to attract new hires with pay increases – Houston Public Media

Natalie Weber / Houston Public Media

The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office hopes to address staffing shortages with new raises in this year’s budget.

As of late May, the sheriff’s office had 131 vacant positions. That number has decreased slightly: in late September, the agency reported about 120 openings.

Sheriff Eric Fagan said the agency froze 58 openings – about half of its vacant positions – to help pay for raises.

“We had a lot of openings that we couldn’t fill because of the salary shortage,” he said. “So we had to think creatively.”

The frozen positions will free up about $5.4 million for law enforcement raises. They include 18 detention deputies, six cadets and five deputy sheriffs, among others.

“I froze — didn’t take away, but froze them, with the understanding with commissioners court that when we have a hiring increase, they will release those froze positions so we can hire these individuals,” Fagan said.

Commissioners Court approved $8.6 million in raises for sheriff’s office employees. Another $1.5 million will go toward raises for other county law enforcement agencies.

The sheriff said on average, the agency’s employees will see more than 20% raises. The raises will be implemented in phases, with the first increases starting this month. The second phase will take place in April.

According to Community Impact, the sheriff’s office discussed outsourcing jail inmates to another facility due to staffing shortages.

Fagan told Houston Public Media that sending more than 300 inmates to another facility would cost the county more than $10 million per year. With the new raises, however, he said the agency is no longer planning to outsource people in its jail.

“That would have cost the taxpayers even more money than the raises,” he said.

The agency is hosting a hiring event on Oct. 19.