Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriffs Association

Press Release For Immediate Release March 8, 2012 Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriffs Association Overwhelmingly Votes No Confidence in the Leadership of Sheriff Dan Houston
Today the Deputies, Sergeants and Lieutenants of the Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriffs Association that makes up the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Department overwhelmingly voted that we have no confidence in the leadership of Sheriff Dan Houston. The main issues that deputies stated surrounded their vote of no confidence are: Lowering of hiring standards into our basic academy. We feel that any changes to the hiring process must go through a high level of scrutiny, and that these changes should not be based on the emotions of a single failed candidate. Multiple violations of our collective bargaining agreement, including the forced new shift bid of over half of his department 30 days after he became Sheriff. Sheriff Houston was warned that this was a contract violation and he showed apathy towards his labor association during these talks. Sheriff Houston would later sign a settlement stating that his new shift bid was not consistent with the language in the collective bargaining agreement. The apparent retaliatory behavior to the deputies who have been vocal against some of these violations, including forcing them into new shifts and schedules that have caused hardships on the deputies home life, professional career and reputation on the department. For not involving the right deputies in decisions before he makes them. For example Sheriff Houston makes it no secret he wants to change or get rid of polygraph testing for new deputies because he believes it to be a false science, but has never gotten together with his departments only certified polygrapher, so that he could be more educated on the science before making any decisions. Ensuring that the new GPS units inside our patrol cars have a privacy policy to ensure that only authorized personnel are viewing the data. The unsupervised release of this data could prove to be deadly to deputies and their families and also help criminals plan crimes if they knew where deputies were located in real time. The Sheriff has now made a promise to look into this, but it seems to be an afterthought. Speaking to his labor association in good faith. Last week he did reach out to his labor association looking to mend the relationship and made some offers to help the above issues, and then pulled them all off the negotiation table two days later stating that he believes the no confidence vote will have little

Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriffs Association

2012

Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriffs Association

lasting impact on the department. We believe it does, even if the public loses interest, it should concern him that an overwhelming majority of his sworn deputies have no confidence in his ability to run the department. Better prioritizing of money being spent inside the department. There are many examples of new badges being made, non-sworn personnel being added to existing staff, uniforms changes, and vehicle lifts for the Sheriffs vehicle only, that dont seem to have any logical reason to be purchased other than to change something. Trust his deputies until they give him a reason to not trust them. By his own admission Sheriff Houston admitted to taking much too long to trust his own command staff. We believe he has let his distrust for his own commanders leak down to the rank and file.

The deputies, sergeants and lieutenants have asked the Sheriff to have good faith when he deals with his employees, and that he not lower or give the appearance of lowering the hiring standards of our department. To be fair in his administering of discipline and to not promote a hostile workplace that inserts fear into his employees if someone publically disagrees with him.

Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriffs Association

2012