Parker County Sheriff's Office

Rural Parker County, Texas, relies on the Parker County Sheriff's Office for round-the-clock patrol, with deputies answering everything from noise complaints to homicides. A volunteer Reserve Unit, founded in 1977, puts licensed reserve deputies through the same field training as full-time deputies. Investigators in the Criminal Investigation Division specialize by crime type, handle sex offender registration and compliance, and seek warrants from a local magistrate once a case is ready, while the Special Crimes Unit works narcotics, gang and vice cases, some undercover, and has officers on DEA task forces. The Parker County Regional SWAT team, formed in 1995 with the Weatherford Police Department, brings operators, medics and crisis negotiators from several county agencies to high-risk warrants, barricades and hostage calls. County communicators dispatch law enforcement, fire and EMS and enter stolen property and missing persons into TCIC/NCIC. The county jail, which the sheriff must keep under Section 351.041 of the Texas Local Government Code, is run day to day by LaSalle Corrections, with an infirmary staffed at all hours and mental health care from Pecan Valley MHMR. School resource deputies teach Texas law and traffic safety, and the free B-Safe program helps groups build personal safety plans.