Bill Waybourn or Vance Keyes? Here’s our recommendation in Tarrant County sheriff race
Politics, not policing, has dominated discussion of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office for the last few years.
The county needs a sheriff equipped to implement smart, targeted changes at the jail, support reforms in law enforcement and engage with an increasingly diverse community. For those reasons, Democrat Vance Keyes is the best choice for voters.
Keyes has two decades of experience as a Fort Worth police officer and leader. That gives him an understanding of what the bulk of the county needs to fight crime smartly and what police departments need from the sheriff’s office. He currently oversees the tactical operations division, including SWAT and Special Operations — important units in a large city with the usual urban crime challenges.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHey, who is behind these endorsements?
Members of the Editorial Board, which serves as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s institutional voice, decide candidates and positions to recommend to voters. The members of the board are: Cynthia M. Allen, columnist; Steve Coffman, editor and president; Bud Kennedy, columnist; Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor; and Nicole Russell, opinion writer.
Members of our Community Advisory Board may also participate in candidate interviews and offer their views, but they do not vote on which candidate to recommend.
Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
How does the process work?
The Editorial Board interviews candidates, asking about positions on issues, experience and qualifications, and how they would approach holding the office for which they are running. Board members do additional research on candidates’ backgrounds and the issues at hand. After that, members discuss the candidates and generally aim to arrive at a consensus, though not necessarily unanimity. All members contribute observations and ideas, so the resulting editorials represent the board’s view, not a particular writer.
How do partisanship and ideology factor in?
We’re not tied to one party or the other, and our positions on issues range across the ideological spectrum. We tend to prefer candidates who align with our previously stated positions, but qualifications, temperament and experience are important, too.
Keyes, 44, of Fort Worth is also a reasonable voice on police reform, and his perspective, with the megaphone of the sheriff’s office, would be valuable. This Editorial Board has said repeatedly that while defunding or disbanding law enforcement is not the solution to police-violence issues, legislative and policing leaders must be serious about changes to training, detention policies and more.
The sheriff’s office’s role in much of that is small. But Keyes, with the credibility borne of his service, could help push the discussion in the right direction. He understands that over-policing is part of the problem, and he would work to reduce the Tarrant County Jail’s population of non-violent inmates.
Keyes, who is Black, is committed to diversity, and it’s important that law-enforcement agencies — and their command staffs — reflect the communities they serve. Incumbent Republican Bill Waybourn says he’s worked on that during his four-year term, but in our interview, he could point to only two minority commanders.
The Democrat has also pledged to end the divisive 287(g) immigration program, which Waybourn initiated. Under the program, Tarrant County deputies perform immigration status checks when the federal employees who usually work out of the jail aren’t available. Waybourn led the charge to bring the county into the voluntary program, and it has created fear and misunderstanding in vulnerable immigrant communities that don’t justify the minimal crime-fighting effects. The county would be better off without it.
The sheriff’s biggest job by far is running the jail. Here, we believe Keyes would be superior to Waybourn, too.
As both candidates understand, the jail regrettably functions as a mental-health clearinghouse. Waybourn has talked about the challenges that poses, the importance of strong health screenings and the steps he’s taken to improve interventions. And while jail deaths have unfortunately spiked this year, few can be traced directly to jail operations. Tarrant County still has a better record on inmate safety than it’s urban Texas counterparts.
That said, improvement is always the goal. And more inmates may need diversion to treatment, particularly for mental-health issues. That’s where Keyes told us he plans to focus. He’s an advocate for more compassionate release of inmates, too. That kind of program needs to be rigorously monitored, but it might be the right move to reduce the jail population and focus on the most dangerous inmates.
Waybourn, 61, who was police chief in Dalworthington Gardens for decades before the upset victory in the 2016 Republican primary that propelled him to sheriff, has quickly built a national profile among conservatives. He’s spoken from the White House and is a frequent guest on conservative news shows.
The sheriff is of course entitled to his political views and to spend his free time on politics or any other pursuit. But his role has become a divisive distraction. He appears in uniform, suggesting an official county imprimatur on his views. That use of that public property in political ads for himself and others is inappropriate.
Waybourn can also be sloppy with his rhetoric, as he demonstrated in our interview, when he accused Keyes of “rallying a crowd that was threatening to burn down Fort Worth.” Keyes insists that the crowd at a rally he attended chanted “shut it down,” and Keyes was far from leading that charge. It’s an irresponsible claim that blurs the line between Keyes and others who want police reform without neutering law enforcement.
Even in polarizing political times -- perhaps, especially in them -- the county sheriff must be above divisive politics and serve the entire community he or she represents. Vance Keyes, with his policing experience and pledge to stay out of the fray, is the right choice for Tarrant County voters.