(Photo: Sheriff Botie Hillhouse.)
Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse said many of the law enforcement changes currently being suggested around the country are already in place in Texas.
“I think Texas has really been proactive on a lot of this stuff,” he said Wednesday during our weekly interview (listen above).
The Sheriff went on to explain that Texas peace officers are already required to take training on de-escalation and mental health training.
“It is across the board, everybody has to take these training courses,” he said.
In addition, Hillhouse said choke holds are prohibited other than in life or death situations.
“We haven’t used choke holds in years,” he said. “To be honest with you, I can’t remember when a choke hold was OK … and in my career I’m going on 23 years.”
During our interview, Hillhouse also explained how the annual racial profiling report filed by law enforcement can show when a particular officer or department has a racism problem.
“That’s a snapshot of what those officers are doing, self initiated,” he said.
Hillhouse also talked about local racism protests and how they have all been peaceful.
Big Busts
The Sheriff highlighted two big drug arrests, one for 80 grams of methamphetamine and another that netted 9 and a half ounces (266 grams) of suspected methamphetamine. According to Hillhouse, that second seizure is equivalent to more than 2,000 individual uses.
“Those are two large amounts of drugs here in Henderson County and we’re excited that we were able to get those off the street,” he said.
Thank You
Hillhouse thanked Treehouse Cupcakes and Kindred at Home Healthcare for providing food to the department this week.
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