Harris County Sheriff's Office


The Harris County Sheriff's Office is a local law enforcement agency serving the over four million citizens of Harris County, Texas, United States. It is headquartered on the first and second floors in the 1200 Baker Street Jail in Downtown Houston.
As of the 2010 U.S. census, the county had a population of 4.1 million, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is Houston. The Harris County Sheriff's Office has approximately 3,500 employees and is the largest sheriff's office in the state of Texas and the sixth largest in the nation. The number one and two largest sheriff's offices in the nation are respectively the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in California and the Cook County Sheriff's Office in Illinois. The third, fourth, and fifth are the Broward County Sheriff's Office in Florida, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office in Florida, and the San Diego County Sheriff's Office in California.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office is the primary law enforcement agency in the of unincorporated area of Harris County, serving as the equivalent of the county police for the approximately 1,071,485 people living in the unincorporated areas of the county. In Texas, sheriffs and their deputies are fully empowered peace officers with county-wide jurisdiction and thus, may legally exercise their authority in unincorporated and incorporated areas of their county; they primarily provide law enforcement services for only the unincorporated areas of a county, while yielding to municipal police or city marshals to provide law enforcement services for the incorporated areas. Sheriffs and their deputies also have statewide warrantless arrest powers for any criminal offense committed within their presence or view. They also may make arrests with a warrant anywhere in the state. In an emergency, sheriffs along with mayors and district judges are empowered by state law to call forth the National Guard to preserve the peace.
The jurisdiction of the Harris County Sheriff's Office often overlaps with several other law enforcement agencies, among them the Texas Highway Patrol, the eight Harris County Constable Precincts, and several municipal police agencies including the city of Houston Police Department. The duties of a Texas sheriff generally include keeping the county jail, providing bailiffs for the county and district courts within his county and serving process issued by said courts, and providing general law enforcement services to residents. The current sheriff of Harris County is Ed Gonzalez, elected in 2016 and has been in office since January 1, 2017.

History

John Moore was sworn in as the first sheriff of what was then called Harrisburg County in February 1837. Among the oldest law enforcement agencies in Texas, the department has grown from a single man on horseback to a modern agency with 3500 employees, including over 2500 sworn officers.
On May 31, 2017, John Hernandez died after being placed in a choke hold after a fight by officers Terry Thompson and Chauna Thompson, a married couple. The death was ruled a homicide by the Harris County medical examiner on June 6, 2017, and both Thompsons were charged with murder.
In 2025, four of the department's deputies committed suicide in the space of four weeks, prompting national coverage.

Sheriffs

Harris County sheriffs:
NameDates
John W. Moore1837-1841
John Fitzgerald1841-1843
Mangus T. Rodgers1844-1846
David Russell1846-1850
James B. Hogan1850-1854
Thomas M. Hogan1854-1856
John R. Grymes1856-1858
George W. Frazier1858-1861
B.P. Lanham1861-1865
John Proudfoot1866
Irvin Capters Lord1866
A.B. Hall1866-1873
Sam S. Ashe1873-1875
Cornelius M. Noble1876-1883
John J. Fant1884-1886
George W. Ellis1887-1895
Albert Erichson1896
W. M. Baugh1897-1898
Archie Anderson1899-1912
Marion F. Hammond1913-1918
Thomas A. Binford1919-1936
Norfleet Hill1937-1942
Neal Polk1942-1948
Clairville "Buster" Kern1949-1972
Jack Heard1973-1984
Johnny Klevenhagen1985-1995
Tommy Thomas1995-2009
Adrian Garcia2009–2015
Ron Hickman2015-2017
Ed Gonzalez2017-

Fallen officers

Since the establishment of the Harris County Sheriff's Department, 45 officers have died in the line of duty.
OfficerDate of deathDetails
Carl F. CourtsNovember 30, 1895Gunfire
James A. ReedSeptember 6, 1905Gunfire
Arthur TaylorMay 24, 1914Accidental gunfire
William C. Williams Jr.April 16, 1930Accidental gunfire
Joe TrapolinoMay 23, 1936Gunfire
Theron Eldridge ShofnerJuly 14, 1948Gunfire
Leo BusbySeptember 10, 1953Automobile accident
Donald E. KnowltonAugust 22, 1960Gunfire
Walter Howard HarveyNovember 5, 1962Automobile accident
Fred B. PeeblesSeptember 23, 1965Vehicular assault
Edd WilliamsJanuary 12, 1974Gunfire
Rodney Scott MorganFebruary 26, 1974Accidental gunfire
Jimmie Howard McKay Sr.March 22, 1974Gunfire
James A. WierAugust 18, 1978Vehicle pursuit
Joe Mason WestbrookJuly 1, 1979Gunfire
Albert Ochoa GarzaJuly 30, 1979Gunfire
Royce Melvin AndersonOctober 26, 1981Accidental gunfire
Reginald Floyd NorwoodSeptember 3, 1985Vehicle pursuit
Haskell Junior McCoyFebruary 2, 1987Automobile accident
Clark Harold HenryJuly 25, 1988Automobile accident
Richard Maurice BlackwellSeptember 6, 1989Motorcycle accident
Jeffery Scott SanfordSeptember 14, 1991Gunfire
Ricky A. YatesJanuary 25, 1994Motorcycle collision
Harvey DavisMay 21, 1996Heart attack
Douglas John NollJuly 22, 1996Vehicle pursuit
Randolph Michael EngDecember 21, 1996Gunfire
Keith Alan FrickeJune 4, 1997Motorcycle accident
Rebecca Ann ShawFebruary 13, 1998Struck by train
Oscar Clarence Hill IVJuly 22, 2000Vehicular assault
John Charles RisleyOctober 23, 2000Gunfire
Barrett Travis HillDecember 4, 2000Gunfire
Joseph Norman DennisMay 22, 2001Gunfire
Shane Ronald BennettJune 12, 2002Accidental gunfire
Thomas Flores DouglasWednesday, March 10, 2004Heart attack
Tommy L. KeenSeptember 15, 2008Accidental
Dionicio M. CamachoOctober 23, 2009Heart attack
Eddie L. WotipkaJune 10, 2010Drowned
Jesse "Trey" Valdez, IIIOctober 29, 2014Automobile; Narcotics involved
Tronoski JonesAugust 20, 2015Heart attack
Darren H. GoforthAugust 28, 2015Gunfire
Omar DiazJuly 6, 2019Duty related illness
Sandeep S. DhaliwalSeptember 27, 2019Gunfire
Cornelius AndersonJuly 12, 2020Duty related illness
Bruce WatsonJanuary 2, 2021Motorcycle accident
Darren AlmendarezMarch 31, 2022Gunfire

Correction facilities

The Harris County Sheriff's Office's correction facilities are located in Downtown Houston, all within a block of one another. They include the 1200 Jail, the 701 Jail, and the 1307 Jail. Previously 1301 Franklin and 301 San Jacinto were jails.
the Harris County jail facilities together have a capacity for 9,434 inmates; at time they have held over 12,000. Due to the excess number of prisoners, the HCSO had to ship inmates to other jails, including some in Louisiana; in June 2010 1,600 Harris County inmates were serving time at other jails. By January 2012 the Harris County jails had 8,573, a decrease by 31% from 2008 to 2012, and there were only 21 inmates serving time in other jail facilities, all in Texas.
The county opened the Atascocita boot camp in 1991, but it closed in September 2004 as the county decided that its rehabilitation value was questionable. The vocational programs, once at the camp, were transferred to the Downtown area.
On February 15, 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a federal civil rights investigation into the jail after dozens of inmate deaths in the past few years: 21 in 2021, 28 in 2022, and 4 in the first two months of 2023.