SAN ANTONIO — A Bexar County detention officer was 36 weeks pregnant when she crashed on her way home after a more than 17-hour shift.
She had two fractures to her spine, several broken teeth and gave birth under an emergency cesarean section at San Antonio Military Medical Center.
The Nov. 8 accident was the fourth incident involving a deputy who worked an overtime shift last year, according to the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Bexar County.
As a result, the association’s leaders are pushing for better working conditions at the jail. They want a ride home for deputies who work a 16-hour shift or more and a more than $16,000 starting pay increase to $60,000.
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The association has drawn the support of the Alliance to Keep Bexar County Safe, a coalition of neighborhood associations with a history of activism throughout Bexar County.
It’s made up of people from all walks of life and throughout Bexar County, including West End Hope in Action, an organization that advocates for West Side residents and organizes against crime in the area.
The Neighborhoods First Alliance, headed by T.C. Calvert, an experienced community activist also is involved.
“This the seventh largest city in America,” Calvert said. “We got to quit nickel and diming the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office with all the high crime and conditions these guys are under.”
They’re planning on sharing their solutions during a rally next month outside the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office headquarters downtown.
Last year, the county spent $14 million on overtime for detention officers, which was $6 million over budget.
Sheriff Javier Salazar has acknowledged the extreme hours and attributed them to the challenge of filling open positions at the jail. In December, the sheriff said there were 230 openings for officers.
The alliance itself and its members, some of whom are in their 90s, have worked together under different names, specifically targeting bouts of crime and related issues, Calvert said. Just last month, they were working together to call police attention to what they identified as a drug house on the East Side.
They’re also gathering support before they take their concerns about jail staffing to the Commissioners Court. They plan to air their concerns via letters to Gov. Greg Abbott, urging him to take responsibility for inmates who should be in the state’s custody.
“These guys are putting their lives on the line and shouldn’t have to work under these conditions,” Calvert said. “I’m ashamed and embarrassed we’re not paying these guys properly… Everybody should be up in arms over this.”
Bexar County deputies received a 15.8 percent increase in pay across the board as part of the collective bargaining agreement reached earlier this year.
Ronald Tooke, president of the deputy association, said the pay was in line with the study conducted by Detain last year, the results of which were released in October. Other counties have since raised the pay of their deputies.
A separate study of the jail performed by American Correctional Consultants released Nov. 29 showed that Bexar County ranks 11th in pay among the most competitive counties in Texas with a starting pay of $43,908.
“We are a premier training ground,” Tooke said of the sheriff’s department. “They come work for us, then go to other agencies who pay them better and treat them better. We keep losing people.”
A lieutenant in the law enforcement division who has been with the sheriff’s office for 32 years, Tooke grabbed the reins of the association in May.
He said the association began working with the neighborhood associations about five months ago after he introduced himself to Calvert.
After he began working with Calvert, Tooke said more than 60 people gathered at an alliance meeting to hear him lay out the problems at the jail. From deputies falling asleep at the wheel after working too many shifts to convicted offenders not being taken to their sentenced prisons or rehabilitation programs by the state — a contributor to the high jail population.
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Since then, the leadership of the union has taken a less aggressive stance with Salazar and focused more on county officials who have more control over the purse strings and facilities management. Tooke considers himself a voice for both deputies and inmates.
“We all have people in jail one way or another,” Tooke said. “I have people who work there, family who stayed — for lack of a better word. It’s a common problem for all of us. I’ve had people say, ‘Why do you care about the criminals?’ and I say they’re human beings, and if they had the means, they wouldn’t be sitting there. They’d be out. We have to make jail livable.”
jbeltran@express-news.net