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There's a new sheriff in town
  
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Five terms enough for Sheriff Smith
Joe Southern, Waller County News Citizen
Waller County still has a Sheriff Smith this new year, but rather than Randy Smith, who has held the seat for 20 years, Glenn Smith, the former Hempstead police chief, is wearing the badge.
Glenn Smith, 50, is not related to Randy Smith, 51, who is retiring after 30 years in law enforcement.
“Right now I want time for myself to do things I want to do,” Randy Smith said Dec. 29 from behind the desk of his nearly empty office.
Smith announced about a year ago that he would not be seeking a sixth term in office.
“Five terms is long enough. Change can be good,” he said.
A lot has changed since Randy Smith took office on Jan. 1, 1989. Having been an adult probation officer for 10 years, he began his first term as sheriff with a staff that included just four deputies in a county with a population of about 19,000 people. As he leaves office, Smith manages a staff of 65 employees in a county that has grown significantly.
“The county has doubled in size ... and we’ve had to grow with it,” he said.
Looking back, Smith said several cases pop to his mind as outstanding, particularly homicides.
“There was one from Houston where a woman was abducted, sexually assaulted and brought here,” he said.
He said the county experiences about one to two homicides a year. He said that and violent crime have increased in the unincorporated areas of the county. And as it was before he entered the profession, most of the crime is related to drugs.
“It’s drugs, day one since I’ve been here,” he said. “Drugs are related to nearly everything we deal with. We just don’t have the manpower that you need.”
He said the drug task forces that were making a difference in the war on drugs in the 1980s and ’90s vanished after 9/11 as funding was diverted to Homeland Security.
“We’re now seeing (drug dealing) come back out to the streets,” he said.
Smith said computer technology and advances and forensic science has greatly improved the department’s crime-solving abilities in the past 20 years.
Aside from the trends in crime, Smith said Glenn Smith will have to deal with an aging jail. He said the problem is not overcrowding -- there is a population of 70 in a facility built for 110 -- the problem is the building itself.
“We’ve had a lot of issues with it the last couple of years. It was built cheap in the ’80s. You take water and metal and 20-something years of it and you’re going to have problems,” he said.
The overcrowding is in the adjacent sheriff’s office, where space is at a premium and getting more valuable as the department grows.
Those problems are no surprise to Glenn Smith, who was fired by the Hempstead City Council in February in a lack of confidence vote, but hired right away by Randy Smith and then elected sheriff in November.
Glenn Smith had been the police chief since May of 2002, coming here from Sabine County. He too has 30 years of law enforcement experience. He had nothing but praise for the outgoing Sheriff Smith.
“He built the foundation for where this county is going,” Glenn Smith said.
He agreed with Randy Smith that the jail and managing a growing population are the biggest challenges facing the office as he takes over today.
“This county is growing. We’re the only area left for Houston and Harris County to grow into,” he said.
Glenn Smith said he has “an excellent relationship with the county commissioners’ court” and he sees himself as a good steward of the resources at his disposal.
“I take the taxpayers’ money seriously. You’ve got to be wise about it,” he said.
Not only will there be a new sheriff in town today, a new chief jailer is on the way. Emmitt Coburn is retiring at the same time as Randy Smith. Craig Davis will be taking his place in mid-January.
Randy Smith said he will take some time before deciding what he want to do in the next phase of his life.
“I was 21 when I started,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot.”
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