By Catherine Dominguez STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has released its updated strategic plan, which includes a border security element to help combat drug and human trafficking locally.
Sheriff Rand Henderson implemented a strategic plan when he took office in January 2017. He released his first plan in 2018 and last updated it in 2020. The updated plan will carry the office through 2026.
Henderson said the plan is critical to operations of the department.
“I knew I wanted to have a strategic plan,” Henderson said. “Everyone knows the road map, the public and our agency.”
County Judge Mark Keough said the border crisis is affecting Montgomery County and adding that element to the department’s strategic plan will help create a “culture of deterrence.”
“Sheriff Henderson is doing the right thing in preparing our community,” Keough said. “He is protecting the people of Montgomery County.”
While the plan has focused on educating the public, community policing and reducing the fear of crime, the latest version addresses the border crisis that is bringing crime nationwide, including in Montgomery County.
“We added border security, a topic we talk about a lot,” Henderson said. “All counties are border counties because we are all affected by human trafficking and the fentanyl problem.”
Border security may be new to Henderson’s plan but not to the department. In 2017, the sheriff’s office entered into an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to participate in the 287 program of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The program, Henderson said, creates partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies to permit designated officers to receive the appropriate training to perform limited immigration law enforcement functions.
“We check immigration status on everybody that comes into the jail,” Henderson said. “That is one of the few areas I have the autonomy to enforce immigration law.”
The agreement acts as a force multiplier in identifying foreign-born individuals with criminal charges or convictions so they can be taken into ICE custody after serving their criminal sentence. As a result, Henderson said, local law enforcement can reduce the number of criminal offenders with an illegal status from being released into local communities.
Additionally, in 2021, Henderson answered Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide call for jailers to assist border sheriffs with operating detention facilities and providing jail beds for those arrested for state charges related to the border crisis.
“I support what the governor is trying to do,” Henderson said during a June 2021 commissioners court meeting. “I recognize there is a crisis and there is a need. Our brother and sister agencies need the help.”
The other step in fighting the border crisis is the growing fentanyl problem.
“It’s directly tied to the border,” Henderson said. “We know the precursors start in China and come to Mexico where it is pressed into pills.”
The department, Henderson said, has added more detectives to address the issue to investigate the source of fentanyl in cases that result in a death tied to the drug.
In June, Abbott signed into law a bill that allows for fentanyl deaths to be prosecuted as murder. That law went into effect Sept. 1.
“We work the case backward to find out who the supplier of these drugs are so we can take those suppliers off the street,” Henderson said.
District Attorney Brett Ligon said Henderson’s detectives have developed a scene response approach to overdose death scenes has enhanced his office’s ability to prosecute the dealer.
“Rand has prioritized opiate detection and prosecution,” Ligon said. “His efforts at targeting the worst offenders is helping to keep Montgomery County safe.”