GARZA 9-14

  According to The Brownsville Herald, electing the next Cameron County sheriff is as black and white choice as choosing between an incompetent Donald Trump and a competent Joe Biden, between a racist Republican Party and an inclusive Democratic Party, between a John Chambers who has spent time behind bars and an Eric Garza who at worst has stopped at a bar.

In a recent article the newspaper published that Chambers "was convicted on 14 felony counts for allegedly having an officer falsify firearm qualifications records," he later "expressed frustration about his criminal history," he is "statutorily ineligible to hold a peace officer license in the State of Texas," he "regrets that his license was revoked for the conviction of a felony," and that if he prevailed against Garza, "the Commissioner's Court would have to appoint a replacement until a special election could be held if a candidate could not become licensed."  

In the following article, the daily presents Garza as squeaky clean who wants to take his administrative and his law enforcement experience to the sheriff's office and bring the department into the 21st century rather than letting it slide back into the 19th century when the Texas Rangers were the law of this lawless land. In so many words the Herald, which doesn't endorse candidates because it needs political ads from all factions in order to survive financially, is more than intimating that Garza is the obvious choice while Chambers would be a disaster. Posts the dying daily:

Eric Garza, who won the Democratic nomination in July, is emphasizing both the importance of his administrative background as former District Clerk and the fact that he does, in fact, have law enforcement experience. He is a licensed peace officer with TCOLE and has been since 2010.

“I wanted to make a change for Cameron County, so I decided to go to the police academy,” he explained, describing attending nightly classes and training for months while working full-time.
Garza was licensed through Constable, Precinct 1, then moved over to Precinct 4 in the Los Fresnos area, which currently holds his license, he said.

His administration would begin with an audit of all the equipment, ammunition, fleet, and anything else purchased by the office to ensure that all funds and grants it is receiving are accounted for, Garza stated.

Compliance issues with Texas Commission on Jail Standards at the county’s three jails would then be addressed, including training both jailers and administration to ensure that inmates are treated with dignity.

Garza said he would then focus on deputy salaries to ensure that resources and money the county puts into training employees don’t go to waste when deputies leave the area for better pay.

Other planned initiatives involve putting body cameras and dash cams to use, as well as developing the infrastructure to handle an increase in data. According to Garza, the Sheriff’s Office as it stands does not have a system where it can look up all cases it investigates online, operating instead with paper.

He added that transparency and rebuilding trust with vulnerable communities through direct engagement, work with schools and community organizations is integral to address sentiment among locals that law enforcement is here to punish and not to serve.

“Right now, the Sheriff’s office does not have an internal affairs division, they do not have a public integrity division. If something happens and they don’t tell you, nobody will ever know,” he said.

“If something happens, we’re going to tell you. We’re going to investigate both sides — the inmate and the employee.”