Just over one year ago in April, Bexar County Commissioners Court unanimously approved plans to hire a firm or consultant to “determine the appropriate number of law enforcement personnel needed in unincorporated Bexar County, to be completed prior to July 31, 2023.”
The vote, initiated by Commissioner Grant Moody, came after a lengthy conversation about whether the county should add more deputies to its payroll.
The study was meant to inform future budget discussions. But it wasn’t completed before the county’s current budget was approved in September 2023 with funds for 50 additional deputies assigned to the growing outskirts of Bexar County such as Alamo Ranch.
One year later, as another budget season approaches, the study still does not exist. In fact, it hasn’t even begun.
Before consultants bid on a chance to conduct the study, county staff must create a “scope of work,” which county officials said is still under development and only underway now because Moody flagged the issue to City Manager David Smith.
“I didn’t know that the court expected us to put together the scope of work until Commissioner Moody talked to me early in the spring this year,” Smith told the San Antonio Report this week. “We’ll expedite as fast as we can.”
The county has been busy with an internal study to determine how many patrol districts are needed to accommodate the deputy positions approved last year, Smith said. “Ultimately, what you want is a sense of how these additional districts would shorten response times on average.”
The deputy sheriff’s union and Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar have joined Moody’s push to commission the study, but it’s unclear if it will be done in time to help inform the next fiscal year’s budget or how much the study would cost.
Typically, formal budget development for the county starts in the summer and is approved each September.
Smith wants to avoid a repeat of 2022, when commissioners heard the results of two different studies regarding staffing at the jail; one from a consultant hired by the Sheriff’s Office and another hired by commissioners.
“That’s why we’re trying to do this one with [Salazar’s] staff,” Smith said, adding that coordination has already begun. “They are making a good faith effort to work with us.”
Moody and Salazar said they want the study done in time to be used to craft the 2025 budget.
“The study process should have started much sooner, but I am glad to see it moving forward now,” Moody said last week. “The longer we wait and push this issue down the road, the more difficult fixing the problem becomes, so it is critical that the County completes this study before budget season and brings the court a plan of action as soon as possible.”
A 2023 study commissioned by the City of San Antonio recommended the San Antonio Police Department hire 360 new patrol officers over several years. The city added 105 positions in 2024, and on Wednesday city staff recommended hiring 130 more officers over the next two years.
Salazar, who supports pending state legislation that would require Bexar County to hire more sheriff’s deputies, said it “would have been nice if [the study] had been done by now. When you put something like that on the official record, you expect it to happen. … When you’re talking about first responders — those that protect and serve our community — how do you delay something like that?”
Salazar anticipates asking for 70-80 deputy positions in the upcoming budget talks, regardless of the study. He said he’s confident that recent wage increases and incentive programs will make those spots fill up quickly.
But Salazar is concerned that the study’s parameters will be “skewed” or “manipulated” by county management.
“If the past repeats itself, those numbers are going to be manipulated in such a way that benefits the county manager and his bottom line,” he said.
The results of the dueling jail staffing surveys, however, largely mirrored each other.
“We’ll have to see,” Salazar said. “We’re hoping that that great relationship that we have … with the [deputy sheriff’s union] and commissioner’s court will result in a true study.”
Ron Tooke, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Bexar County, said adding more deputies could solve a longstanding “catch-22” situation.
“We’re short-staffed, but we still have to provide the services that are needed out there,” Tooke said. “That means overtime for the officers and then the sheriff gets beat up over the overtime.
“… I would say they need to really, seriously start looking at probably 100 to 200 more deputies out at these unincorporated areas,” he added.
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said he wants to understand how the increase of deputies in unincorporated areas this year affected crime.
“Bring back at least some metrics [and] data — tell me what the return on investment is,” Sakai said. “I’ll be conferring with staff and the county manager’s office [to see] why can’t we get that study done. At the same time, is it still needed? I presume it is. I would want it.”
It’s possible that the study could be done in time for summer budget talks, he said, “depending on what exactly we want studied, and how in depth.”
