Two men in McLennan county are vying for the Republican nomination for sheriff in the March primary election.
Current sheriff Parnell McNamara is running for reelection to keep the position he has held since 2012.
MCNAMARA: “I’m not ready to quit. I’ve got a good team with the sheriff's office. We have unbelievable deputies, we have accomplished a lot in the last 11 years that I’ve been here.”
McNamara began his career in law enforcement in 1963 as a 16-year-old, working as a guard to assist his father who was a deputy U.S. Marshal. After graduating from Baylor, McNamara followed in his fathers footsteps and worked for the U.S. Marshals Service for 33 years.
MCNAMARA: “I love the fact that my entire career in law enforcement has been here in Mclennan county.”
Despite turning 78 this year, McNamara says he still has what it takes to manage the responsibilities of county sheriff.
MCNAMARA: “I feel good, I’m in good health. You know, there are a lot of politicians, a lot of business people that are a lot older than I am that are still working.”
McNamara says his greatest achievement as sheriff has been the initiatives the department has spearheaded, including an organized crime unit, human trafficking unit, and a cold case team which investigates unsolved crimes.
MCNAMARA: “ I formed what is called an organized crime unit which fights drugs and other crimes, but mainly narcotics. That was not done, I formed that unit. And I don’t like to say I, but in this case I will say I because I put it in motion. Our human trafficking unit we got into when one of our detectives came to me with an idea. We have arrested over 800 child molesters, traffickers, and sex related crimes since we formed that unit.”
If reelected, McNamara says he will continue being hard on crime and will work to get officers at the department body cameras, a practice the sheriff's department has yet to adopt despite the widespread use in Waco, Hewitt and other Mclennan county police departments.
MCNAMARA: “I know that that’s been an issue with certain people. We’ve got, I believe maybe six cameras now, that we’re testing. And so we’re gonna pick the best one and then we’re going to see if the county commissioners will fund body cameras. And I’m not opposed to it.”
McNamara is challenged by the anti-gang investigator for the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office, Jeff Aguirre.
Aguirre has been involved in law enforcement for the last 28 years, 17 of which have been spent investigating organized crime and narcotics in McLennan county. He also served as an international police advisor in Afghanistan and a United Nations police officer in Haiti.
Aguirre says his experience working in diverse communities overseas and in McLennan county lends itself to the responsibility of the sheriff.
AGUIRRE: “You know, when you’re in Afghanistan it's not just the Afghans and Americans. We had Nepalis, South Africa, New Zealand, Romania. All around the world, we are always interacting with different cultures. That's what I bring to the table from my international experience, is different cultures, different religions, different beliefs, different languages, just a different way of approaching people to be successful.”
Aguirre says one of the main reasons he decided to run was to improve transparency and accountability within the sheriff's department. -
AGUIRRE: “There's not a lot of transparency, there's not a lot of accountability in that office. The people in that department that are currently there and that have a post administration vision, if they can have that vision so can I. But I want to be out here earning it from people, I want to stand in front of people, let them ask me the hard questions and I’m gonna stand here. That's the transparency part of that.”
If elected, Aguirre says the first thing he will do is get the department body cameras.
AGUIRRE: “I don’t know why we don’t have them. They are absolutely necessary. They serve two purposes, they document the public interaction with the officer but they also document the officers interaction with the public. If you’ve got an officer that's problematic or condescending, that's a self correcting problem when you put a body camera on him. He’s gonna act a little different.”
Aguirre says he will also work to get the human trafficking department at the sheriff's office back on track, claiming the unit has been reduced to just a few officers working cases.
AGUIRRE: “If I was elected sheriff I would try to get the human trafficking guy to come back to work, cause he left the sheriff's department. He’s part of the 71 supervisors that have left in the last 10 years. We currently don’t have a human trafficking unit. They have people that are working those cases but it’s not near as diligent, or as hard, or as effective as it was.”
You can listen to my full interviews with each candidate online at kwbu.org, where we discuss their backgrounds in law enforcement, their vision for the sheriff department, and what actions they will take to better serve McLennan county.
For 103.3 Waco Public Radio, I’m Autumn Jones.