SAN ANTONIO – Nearly 60% of Bexar County sheriff’s deputies are dissatisfied with working conditions at the jail and on the streets, according to an independent study commissioned by the Bexar County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.
Among the complaints the deputies have is what they claim is “forced overtime.”
”They’re working overtime because we have to be in compliance with jail standards,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said Wednesday. “If you’ve got X number of inmates under roof, you’ve got to have X number of deputies under roof.”
The study, conducted by Dr. Stacy Speedlin, a sociologist, claims that long hours under difficult, sometimes dangerous, working conditions are leading to an increase in domestic problems and a higher than average divorce rate among deputies.
”I’d rather be able to send them home to be with their families, but we can’t do that because we have to comply with the law,” Salazar said. “At least I’ll make sure they get paid.”
Salazar said that some deputies are making over $100,000 a year thanks to overtime.
He said the issues raised in the study are not peculiar to his department and are common for other law enforcement agencies.