TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — The Tarrant County Sheriff is up for re-election following a contentious year filled with controversy surrounding deaths at the Tarrant County Jail.
Sheriff Bill Waybourn, who first took office as a Republican in 2017, is facing a challenge from Democrat Patrick Moses, a retired law enforcement officer.
Since Waybourn took office, more than 60 people have died in the Tarrant County Jail, about half from natural causes, which has spurred numerous calls for Waybourn to resign.
Data from National Institutes of Health shows Inmate deaths in Tarrant County have exceeded the national average in each of the last four years. The county has had to settle more than $2 million in lawsuits related to the jail in the past year.
“The first thing I would say is that I wasn't agreeing to settlements,” Waybourn previously told WFAA. “I generally was not for that. And the other thing that I would say to people is that even when we did everything right, the person still died.”
Waybourn, who was elected in 2017, has repeatedly refused to brief the Tarrant County Commissioners' Court on his agency’s policies and procedures.
In a previous interview, Waybourn told WFAA that Tarrant County runs “one of the safest and cleanest jails in America.” He said factors beyond the jail’s control have caused the number of deaths to spike.
Waybourn has seen success as a Republican despite the majority of Tarrant County voting for Democrat Joe Biden in the last general election in 2020.
Moses, who has experience with the Federal Protective Service and the Department of Homeland Security, is running on a platform of ending the high number of deaths at the Tarrant County Jail by creating a Civilian Review Commission to investigate every act of excessive force, including deaths in the jail, and releasing those investigation results in a report to the public.
Waybourn will be speaking at 7:45 p.m.
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