CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Kleberg County Sheriff's department has only a handful of deputies to patrol and answer calls throughout the 1000 mile county.
Kleberg County Sheriff Richard Kirkpatrick said his department is in the same boat as a lot of law enforcement agencies -- a lot of job openings but not applicants.
"Right now we’re probably about five personnel short on patrol, but when you have a group of 10 guys who are working the county, those five are critical,” he said.
State lawmakers are looking to help Kleberg and other small counties through Senate Bill 22. The state would send anywhere from $250,000-500,000 a year to those county sheriff’s to either beef up their pay, add officers, or purchase equipment and vehicles.
Kleberg County Judge Rudy Madrid said he's glad to see state lawmakers finally taking action to try and help counties like his.
"It’s about time that Austin starts recognizing our law enforcement officers and starts to spend some of our hard earned tax money appropriately,” he said.
Kleberg County would be in line to receive $350,000. But over in San Patricio County they would receive a half million dollars every year because their population is over 50,000.
San Patricio County Sheriff Oscar Rivera told 3NEWS he would use that money to buy equipment and vehicles since employee salaries have been raised above the grants threshold.
The bill would also allow county and district attorney offices in small counties to receive anywhere from $100,000-300,000 to increase salaries or to hire additional staff.
"I think they are finally recognizing that at the end of the day we’ve got to be able to pay these people in public safety for what they’re doing,” he said.
State senator Juan 'Chuy' Hinojosa said there will be enough money in the grant program to cover the next two years. But we wondered how much support there really was for this measure.
"There’s very strong support, both in the senate and the house," he said.
If SB 22 passes counties could start applying for the money beginning in January of next year.
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