Troy E. Nehls - Constable, Fort Bend County - Precinct 4

Dear interested citizen:

Several factors are motivating me to run for Sheriff, and one of them is the lack of sufficient focus on residential burglaries. I believe that this deficiency is due to a failure of leadership, a lack of vision, and apathy of the current upper management at the Sheriff’s Office. I know that the street-level employees of the Sheriff’s Office exemplify the best in law enforcement, but the senior staff is not performing up to expectations.

Please take a look at the information summarized below, and I also encourage anyone wanting more data to click through the link to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Yours truly,
Troy Nehls

The current Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office senior administration has delivered a dismal burglary solve rate.

Based on a data from the Texas Uniform Crime Report (a report compiled with information given to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI by Texas law enforcement agencies), the performance of the current senior administration at the Sheriff’s Office is not satisfactory.

The following chart compares the performance of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office to that of sheriff’s offices of similar size in Texas, with an especially telling comparison to the two regional counties most similar to Fort Bend in size and population.

Year after year, the burglary clearance rate of the current Fort Bend Sheriff’s Office senior administration is horrible. For example, in 2010, the Sheriff’s Office cleared only 77 burglaries out of 1579 burglary offenses.

For more crime solve rate numbers, with detailed statistics for agencies across Texas, please take a look through the Texas Department of Public Safety website via the link below. Crime data is available for the years 1999 to 2010, and by agency for each year under the section titled "Chapter 10 Crime By Jurisdiction."

CLICK HERE FOR OFFICIAL STATE DATA: http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/administration/crime_records/pages/crimestatistics.htm

Identified problem: There is a lack of investigators assigned to specifically investigate the violent crimes against women cases in Fort Bend County.
Data Collection: Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office

Potential Response to problem: Fort Bend County has a population of approximately 575,000 in 2010. During 2008 and 2009, the female population accounted for over 50% of the Fort Bend County population. Fort Bend County is currently listed as 27th in the nation and 2nd in the state of Texas among the fastest growing counties. For an example, at the Sheriff's Office, the violent crimes against women increased approximately 25% from 2007 to 2009, and the number of cases as of November 1, 2010 has already exceeded the total number of violent crimes against woman cases for 2009. (See graph)

As your next Sheriff, I will place an adequate number of detectives into the Special Crimes Unit which will focus on violent crimes against women. Currently, the Fort Bend Sheriff's Office solves only 33% of reported Rapes, with Montgomery County solving 96% of their Rape cases. We can do better!
Troy Nehls

Source of Information: Fort Bend County Community Action Plan (2010-2011)

What is a Community Plan?

Identified problem: Lack of personnel to document gangs and their members as well as investigate gang-related crimes.
Data Collection: Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office

Potential Response to problem: The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office reports there are 55 gangs documented with over 850 members and/or associates primarily on the east end of Fort Bend County. It has been identified that many of these documented members are responsible for many crimes in the area. Several gangs have been identified that are currently actively recruiting in many of the schools. Because of the State's laws regarding documenting gang members and maintaining an intelligence data base, there is a requirement to constantly review the data and update the members' last involvement with the law enforcement or purge that data entirely. There is only one investigator to document, investigate and maintain the intelligence database. It has been proven that Fort Bend County currently has a large population of gang members and there is a need for the County to have a fully functioning gang unit.

As your next Sheriff, I will re-establish a county wide Gang Task Force working with other Fort Bend Law enforcement agencies, that will aggressively pursue gang members and their affiliates. We must protect our children!
Troy Nehls

Source of Information: Fort Bend County Community Action Plan (2010-2011)

What is a Community Plan?