Some men (and women) were born to be leaders – candidate for Harris County Sheriff Louis Guthrie certainly fits that bill. From the very first time I met him, he has exuded the confidence that comes from being a two-time high school class president, captain of the football team, 100 Club Officer of the Year, and rising star in the HCSO. During my interview with him about the Sheriff’s race, I think that I pressed him so many times on where that drive to be a leader comes from that I couldn’t blame him if he thought I had a man-crush on him. Obviously, he was influenced by his father, coaches, and pastor but in the end, the best that I could come up with is that he is one of those rare breeds that was born for leadership.
Of course, there is more to being a Harris County Sheriff than raw leadership ability alone, although that aspect of the job is probably the most critical. We discussed a wide range of issues that impact the safety of the citizens of the county and how the department would look under his leadership. He focused on three things:
- Data Driven Policing
- Reserves (staffing in general)
- Budget
After our discussion, my definition of data driven policing would mean using actual, live crime statistics to prioritize resource utilization, thus lowering crime by attacking it where it is. Mr. Guthrie has a much better explanation of that, so if you get a chance to attend a forum, you should take the opportunity to do so. I didn’t know that current Sheriff Adrian Garcia had pulled all of the crime analysts out of their roles as he built up his command staff (I wrote about this a year ago). A simple illustration would be putting pins on a map – if a whole bunch of pins ended up in the 500 block of Shoreacres Blvd., you’d know that something unusual was happening there and would alert your patrol units to drive by more frequently.
Staffing is a huge problem at the deputy level, which makes Sheriff Garcia’s build up of command staff even more questionable. The 2010 FBI Crime in the US statistics show that nationwide, the county average for deputies per 1,000 citizens was 2.7. According to a report titled Patrol Staffing Analysis by the HCSO, the ratio for Harris county is 0.25 for every 1,000. Mr. Guthrie proposes to help alleviate this shortage by quadrupling the reserve unit, along with reversing Sheriff Garcia’s command staff build up. Not only command staff, but media relations would be cut. He would pay for the reserve buildup by seizing drug cartel assets, thereby attacking two problems at once.
To get a sense of how hard it is to staff deputies for unincorporated Harris County, you have to understand just how large unincorporated Harris County is:
I had no idea how much larger the population of unincorporated Harris County is than other Texas Counties. Wow!
About the budget, I’ve mentioned before (here and here) that most of the primary candidates think that the budget must be increased. Mr. Guthrie was a bit more nuanced in our discussion than he was in the forums – during the forums, he stated that his relationship with Harris County Commissioners Court would result in a larger budget. I asked him point blank if that meant that the Court was playing partisan politics and not giving Sheriff Garcia the resources he needed. His answer was no, that the budget under Garcia had grown and would continue to grow. What he meant was that the Court would see that he was prioritizing the resources better than Garcia and they would be more apt to give him what he asked for versus them seeing that Garcia was building up his command staff and not boots on the ground.
A glaring example of what Sheriff Garcia has done was noted in the Houston Chronicle today in a report by Anita Hassan:
Also, county budget cuts have suspended testing in the auto theft division for now. But overall, testing can help to solve more crimes as well as prevent them, Wilson said.
“If you catch one of those guys (car burglars), you can prevent dozens of them over a period of months,” he said. “They are out there every single day driving those parking lots in every part of this city and county looking for targets. If you get one of them off the streets, there’s no telling how many you may have prevented.”
I asked Mr. Guthrie about this report and he replied:
“Touch DNA is just one of many exciting new techniques now used to help solve crimes that were previously relegated to the “closed with no investigation” file. While the current Sheriff has created most of his own budgeting problems, cutting funding for programs that help put burglars behind bars is a poor choice for the taxpayers. Garcia could easily trim fat from his bloated command staff and instead put dollars to work solving crimes and putting more boots on the ground. That would have a real impact of improving public safety in Harris County.” Louis Guthrie
We talked about the budget for quite some time. I was impressed with his detailed knowledge of how the department works, down to the supplies issued each deputy. I was a bit surprised by this because his highest rank in the department had been Lieutenant and budgeting is typically done by the Captains. He told me that he took it upon himself as a Lt. to break down the numbers passed down by his Captain because he wanted to be certain that taxpayer money was being utilized efficiently.
Okay, now we get to the “bad stuff”. You may or may not know that Mr. Guthrie was fired from the HCSO by Sheriff Garcia in May of 2009 after an incident in July, 2008. Mr. Guthrie appealed his firing but it was upheld 2-1 by the Harris County Civil Service Commission in May, 2010. He has appealed the decision and has also filed suit against Sheriff Garcia. Because of the ongoing lawsuits, Mr. Guthrie was limited in what he could say but he is adamant that his firing was a political move by Sheriff Garcia and maintains that he did not violate the law during that incident.
I have no idea what happened that day and think that we should let the appeals play out before we decide one way or the other. But I will say that putting a black mark on a potential rival’s reputation is not unheard of in politics.
I enjoyed meeting with him and learning more about who he is and what motivates him. There are other good candidates in this race and I hope to meet with each of them in the coming weeks. But I think that if the Republican primary voters choose to put Mr. Guthrie up against Sheriff Garcia in the fall, there will be few charges that they picked the wrong guy. I get the feeling that voters would sleep well at night knowing that Mr. Guthrie was in charge of protecting our county.
Website: LouisGuthrie.com
Facebook: Louis Guthrie for Harris County Sheriff
Twitter: Guthrie4Sheriff
I really appreciated your insight on this candidate. I too have had the pleasure of listening to him speak at one of the forums, and it was clear that he definitely has a better grasp of the responsibilities of the Sheriff of the County than the others. I am a father of three and the guardian of my family, but Mr. Guthrie gives me added confidence that he will do what is right, and provide protection for me and my family. It is difficult to define, and maybe you have to be there, but I am given the feeling that he would put himself and his deputies between the community and a looming danger for our protection, as if to say, “Get behind me, I will protect you.” It may seem a little strong or even hokey but it is the impression I get.
I believe this article hits the nail on the head! This race is more important than most give it credit and if one understands our Constitution its importance resonates soundly with the core of our freedoms. I did a little research on this candidate and he is someone that I solidly support. This is a little of what I discovered:
1) Strong Second Amendment supporter
2) Tea Party involvement
3) Believes in Immigration Reform (Possibly the root cause of why Garcia trumped up the termination)
4) Long and consistent Republican voting record. (Look it up!)
5) Knows the department and even after being terminated landed on his feet, which indicates a solid foundation and a strong determination to persevere.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I am concerned about any suggestion that a police officer used his position in a heavy-handed way to shut down a business that had a dispute with his wife. I don’t remember all the facts from the multiple emails I have gotten from his opponents about this, but at the end of the day, we want our strongest candidate both in terms of qualifications and integrity to put up against Garcia. And maybe that is Guthrie in the end. But I think the Republican primary voters deserve to hear the allegations and Guthrie’s defense. You can be sure we will hear about them in November if Guthrie is our nominee.
And the same will be true for any warts on the other candidates’s lives.
If you don’t have a dog in the fight and you are a Harris County voter, you may want to consider it. I too have followed this race and the candidates. I had to satisfy my questions and concerns about Mr. Guthrie so I tapped a few resources and learned some very intereting facts, one of which was that the business was never shut down and its ability to service its cutomers was never impeded. I for one believe that just because the man is a peace officer does not mean he, his wife or any other family member should be precluded from justice. Interesting side note to illustrate my point, I went to my banking institution one day and notice police officers all around. Not taking long to realize something was drastically wrong I asked one of the police officers what happened and they informed me the bank had been robbed and the bank was closed. A day later I returned to the bank and struck up a conversation with one of the tellers. During the course of the conversation she told me there was no weapon involved and the robber got away with $20.00. For that $20 bucks the bank what shut down for hours and the FBI was called out. Apparently the number of e-mails being received from his opponents are going out because he is the strongest candidate. I recently attended a forum at a local restaurant and by its end it was abundantly clear that it is his race to lose. The other candidates seemed nice but completely out of their element. Mr. Guthrie seemlessly transitioned from one topic to the next with precision and clarity of thought as though he were already the elected Sheriff. I believe Garcia will be in some serious trouble when it is time for a debate, and if Guthrie wins his wrongful termination suit Garcia and the Dems will have a lot of explaining of their own to do.
Louis arrived hours after the incident as the Captain in charge. The officers were already there conducting their investigation. The main reason for the extended investigation was the possibility of other more serious illegal activity going on, that involved Adrian’s “relatives”.
The business was never shut down completely according to all public records. Special thanks to the watch dawgs in Conroe for providing the open record request data to prove up the real story.
Hey Big Spender!! So Garcia’s budget is too big, says Guthrie, but he would increase it more? I call BS.
In reality (i.e, outside the campaign trail), the Sheriff’s Office is primarily about running the jail. Garcia cited all the same data and made all the same promises about more patrols when he first ran, then once elected he had to confront reality and had to spend all his budget cushion on overtime for jailers to meet minimum state standards. What “efficiencies” will Guthrie install to change that situation? Nada. Command salaries are a drop in the bucket compared to overtime. If you or anybody believe Guthrie won’t be subject to PRECISELY the same budget dynamic, you’ve got another think coming. Such campaign promises are completely detached from reality.
Gritsy, it must be nice to live in Grits world where you are all knowing and perfect.
In reality, Garcia didn’t campaign on squat – he was elected in the Obama wave and only then because Sheriff Tommy Thomas had some problems at the time. Any other election and Garcia doesn’t come close. Now that we got that out of the way, the fact of the matter is that in Harris County the Sheriff’s Deputies do more, much more, than man the jail. And the command staff was seriously upped at the expense of boots on the ground – did you bother to read the link above?
Ya know, every once in a while, you might need to understand that you can’t apply boilerplate Gritsthink to every situation. Once in a while, someone just might know a wee bit more than you about that of which they speak. 😉
Neither all knowing, nor perfect. But I remember the 2008 election better than you apparently do!
My comments weren’t boilerplate but quite specific and historically grounded. Garcia ran on expanding patrols in unincorporated areas as his main if not his only campaign platform, and when he tried to implement it once elected, reality intervened, see: http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/01/opportunities-arise-when-tight-budgets.html
But hey, you don’t have to believe me. If Guthrie gets elected, you and he will learn that soon enough. Then sometime in 2013 he can explain to you why the jail eats up all the budget so he can’t beef up patrol, just like Garcia and Thomas before him.
As for command staff, from what I understood much of that was reclassification and semantics, and of course all those changes were approved by Guthrie’s good pals at the commissioners court with whom he has such a great relationship.
Anyway, I thought you Republicans were self-styled budget cutters? Why are all your Sheriffs nominees Big Government types who want to increase spending even when revenue dips and crime is declining to record lows? Who does a Small-Government Conservative vote for in this race?
I have my favorite in the election, but I have seen some articles that really amaze me. Richard Dillon stated alot of venomous things about Harold Heuszel and Louis Guthrie. I do not care for his candidate and it is mostly because of him (Dillon) not the candidate. Pittman must think like Dillon as Dillon infers. Any of the Republican candidates are better than Adrian and Dillon should remember Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment. Of course, I pointed that out to him on his site and my comments did not make it through his censors (probably him).
Great response David to ole burnt grits post. I have seen that screen name before on some liberal site news sitemaking feeble arguments against conservative beliefs. They are apparently slanted against Guthrie because of his strong conservative views, But if Liberals are his enemies I like Guthrie even more, because that means he is giving them the Hell they deserve after what they have done to our county and our Country. Go Guthrie Go!
Guthrie would lead from behind the lines. I call B/S on this story. Guthrie has the ability to tell people what they want to hear. This is another example of sheeple blindly following someone who is not really vetted properly (Obama again). I have witnessed Guthrie’s leading from behind and placing his own needs ahead of the very public he wants to con into believing he would serve. He even has the deputies who served under him believing he is great. They never saw the “leader” I personally observed while he and I were peers. Just being blunt and honest here.
I was actually proud of our electorate until I read that self serving unfounded unsupported by evidence by Hawkins, who I’m willing to bet has never read any legitimate documents about a four year old incident that you want blood for still! Dillon sorry excuse for reporter. His lips so peeled to Pittman’s you know what, laughable. No class. Where was this political genius the last 6-7 months? Why come out with venom and lies 1 week before primary? You can answer that. If people intend to judge a situation, writing trash in public forum, do us a favor. Do your homework. Stop acting like a teenage girl, gossiping. 14th Court slammed Garcia after AG commanded him turn over docs. Then Guthrie won in Judge Baker’s Court. His wife has health challenges and have you ever thought, hmmm, wonder if he was set up? Not his decision to go there. Said to Humble “can’t you handle it?” they kept on until I think purpose was very simple: ensure wife ok. Can I crucify you for the next 5 years? C’mon! Tell me your baggage