Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez insists his mandate is easy: Serve everybody, even those that didn’t vote for him.
He gained a 3rd time period final November with simply over 53% of the vote, a slender margin that underscores each the expectations and scrutiny now shadowing the chief of Texas’ largest sheriff’s workplace.
“After I die, I need to die on empty, not as a result of I’m drained, however as a result of I used each ability and expertise I used to be blessed with for the larger good of simply attempting to go away the world a greater place than I discovered it,” Gonzalez informed the Defender.
Gonzalez’s initiatives
The Houston native remembers studying as a toddler that his father couldn’t learn or write and later, that his dad was as soon as incarcerated within the very jail Gonzalez now oversees. That have, he says, fueled his empathy and his fixation on navigators, methods and individuals who assist others via difficult bureaucracies, from job functions to courtrooms.
Contained in the jail, this has translated into partnerships with Houston Group Faculty and trauma-informed programming, together with a Girls’s Empowerment Heart.
“I’m involved that girls are the fastest-growing inhabitants in all jails and prisons,” Gonzalez stated. “Traditionally, the felony justice system was by no means actually designed with ladies in thoughts. On the Girls’s Empowerment Heart, we take a trauma-informed strategy…to attempt to join them to their youngsters, deal with every other underlying points, as a result of we discovered, particularly with ladies, that beneath, there’s a number of unresolved trauma that was by no means handled.”
If Gonzalez’s rhetoric leans humane, his third time period is outlined by tough issues in native felony justice: A jail below remedial orders and intense public strain after a string of in-custody deaths.
State regulators have repeatedly cited Harris County for non-compliance. As lately as June 30, 2025, the Texas Fee on Jail Requirements issued one other discover tied to deficiencies recognized in late-June inspections. This summer season, the Sheriff’s Workplace launched a 17-minute video of 32-year-old Alexis Cardenas’ deadly encounter with jailers as he refused to go away upon launch. A number of investigations are ongoing.
Challenges forward
Gonzalez stated a number of inmates, disproportionately African American (~ 50%), battle psychological and bodily well being points like dependancy, hypertension and diabetes, which makes hefty investments within the policing system essential.
“We’re within the entrance traces of three necessary points: Psychological sickness, dependancy and poverty,” he stated. “We might at all times do higher. As deficiencies come up, we attempt to deal with them.”
Gonzalez argues the jail’s medical and mental-health burdens are structural. Staffing and overcrowding have lengthy pushed expensive inmate outsourcing to far-flung amenities, a follow he “basically” opposes and desires to finish as inhabitants and case backlogs ease. County price range writers now venture a $4 million lower to outsourcing within the fiscal yr 2026 as the common jail depend falls, down roughly 1,300 since February to about 8,650.
“We don’t have a staffing problem,” Gonzalez defined. “We now have a jail inhabitants problem. Our aim is to finally deliver all people again as a result of we really feel we truly do a greater job of managing our personal inhabitants right here than having to outsource to different locations.”
Gonzalez credit quicker case resolutions and collaboration with prosecutors and courts.
The “north star” of policing
On the road, Gonzalez touts a measurable dip in violent crime in 2024 throughout homicides, robberies, aggravated assaults and gunshot victims, with comparable developments persevering with into 2025. He cites policing in hotspots like Cypress Station and a rising reliance on non-police responses for behavioral and social-service calls.
The county’s Holistic Help Response Groups (HART), clinician-led models that divert non-violent 911 calls away from deputies, are increasing with new funding and personnel, laying groundwork for twenty-four/7 protection.
“We applied what we name the neighborhood problem-oriented policing, the place we work intently with condo complexes that typically may very well be magnets for crime,” Gonzalez stated. “We’re increasing it [HART] because of the help of the Commissioners Courtroom. However it takes management as a result of if I wasn’t on board, it wouldn’t occur.”
Contained in the jail, Gonzalez moved to make Harris County the primary massive Texas facility to require body-worn cameras on detention employees, a transparency step that started rolling out in late 2023 and ramped via 2024. The coverage now shifts to compliance and accountability, making certain cameras are activated and the footage is used to enhance follow.
The Sheriff’s portfolio can also be colliding with new politics from Austin. Senate Invoice 8, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on July 15 and efficient Jan. 1, 2026, requires sheriffs in massive counties to hunt 287(g) agreements with ICE, formalizing jail-based immigration cooperation. Gonzalez says HCSO will comply with the legislation whereas sustaining neighborhood belief and prioritizing felony exercise over immigration standing.
“We’re gonna comply with the legislation,” he stated. “There are lots of legal guidelines that I could help and others that I’m not as supportive of, however on the finish of the day, I can’t choose and select. For me, ideally, we’d like some wise immigration reform, which is what I’ve at all times advocated for. Sooner or later, hopefully, the political will is there on the aspect of each events to get one thing accomplished sooner or later.”
For ladies, veterans and folks battling dependancy, Gonzalez frames rehabilitation as public security. He leans on violence interruption partnerships that target non-fatal shootings as a result of “secondary shootings” drive retaliation and boasts an 83% murder clearance fee, crediting sustained focus from investigators.
Nonetheless, the contradictions of Harris County’s jail period persist. In August, County Commissioners accepted a elevate for Constables at the same time as a $48 million deficit looms. Outsourcing and indigent protection proceed to squeeze funds and every in-custody loss of life resets public confidence.
Gonzalez doesn’t deny the space left to journey. However he returns, usually, to the north star that propelled him from patrol officer to Metropolis Corridor to sheriff: Deal with folks pretty, depart locations higher than you discovered them and refuse to look away from the toughest issues.
“I replicate so much on my religion and I don’t at all times discuss so much about it, however on the finish of the day, there’s a increased judgment as a God-fearing individual,” he stated of the legacy he needs. “It’s about, ‘Did I deal with folks pretty? Was my coronary heart in a very good place to sincerely attempt to do good and look after others?’ If that occurs, then I feel historical past might be good to me.”
