Waller sheriff at center of jail’s woes dies
Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, who oversaw the jail where Sandra Bland died in 2015, sparking a national outcry over the deaths of Black people in police custody, died Saturday following a heart attack.
Smith spent more than 40 years working in police departments across southeast Texas. Since 2009, he has served as sheriff of Waller County, a fastgrowing and increasingly diverse community northwest of Houston. His death was confirmed by the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas and Waller County Judge Trey Duhon, who ordered flags to be flown at halfstaff for 30 days in Smith’s honor.
“Sheriff Smith cared deeply for all the citizens of our county and the employees under his care,” Duhon said in a statement. “This comes as a huge shock to all of us here with the county and our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.”
Smith came under intense scrutiny during his second term as Waller County Sheriff, after a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper pulled over and arrested Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old Black woman, near Prairie View A&M University in July 2015. Three days later, jailers found Bland dead at the Waller County jail. Her death was later ruled a suicide.
Bland’s arrest — captured by police dashcam and her cellphone — and her death in police custody drew national outrage and galvanized civil rights activists and criminal justice reform advocates, leading to sweeping legislation aimed at making jails safer. Bland’s mother later sued the county and reached a $1.8 million settlement.
Investigators later discovered training lapses and other
problems at the jail. In March 2017, after firearms were stolen from Smith’s Ford pickup, Duhon and Attorney Elton Mathis — at the request of the Waller County commission — asked the sheriff to step down. Smith refused.
“Since then, he had quite a bit of improvement,” Duhon said.
The sheriff invited an outside committee of defense lawyers and other officials to scrutinize the jail operations, and instituted a series of reforms to screen new inmates for mental health and make sure they were monitored more closely while detained.
Many of those reforms were later included in the Sandra Bland Act, which mandates that county jails divert people with mental illnesses and substance abuse to treatment facilities and require that police departments investigate jail deaths. The law was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2017.
Smith also played a major role in pushing for the construction of a new jailhouse, sheriff’s office and courthouse to replace the old facilities, which Duhon said were “falling apart.” The new buildings, which are under construction as part of a $39.5 million bond passed by voters in November 2017 — two years after Bland’s death — are expected to be finished by the end of the summer.
Cedric Watson, who came within 4,000 votes of beating Smith in the Waller County Sheriff’s election in 2016, said relations between police and the Black community in Prairie View are still lacking. Watson is running against Troy Guidry, who defeated Smith in the primaries, for the sheriff ’s office in November. Watson said he wants to see more cultural diversity training for police officers as well as more people of color entering law enforcement to improve community relations.
“All because there’s a new building doesn’t mean there’s been change,” Watson said. “The people need to change. The culture needs to change. If you bring in the same people with the same mindset, nothing will change.”
The new jailhouse will feature technology that will allow jailers to check cells through computers. Jailers will be trained to conduct throughout mental health checks, Duhon said.
“Sheriff Smith was instrumental in planning those buildings,” Duhon said. “Those will be a legacy to his service.”
Smith began his career as a prison guard at what is now the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in 1978. He joined the Grimes County Sheriff ’s Office a year later, then spent a decade at the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission, and later worked as the chief of police at the city of Kountze, starting in 1995. He worked as chief deputy of the Sabine County Sheriff ’s Office, and the chief of police at the Hempstead Police Department.
Fellow sheriffs and former employees recalled Smith as a hardworking boss who pushed them to grow professionally.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Smith was one of the first sheriffs he met after being elected in 2016, and called him a friend and neighbor.
“He was kind and neighborly, always open to collaboration,” Gonzalez said. “He will be missed.”
Waller County Fire Marshall Brian Cantrell, who worked with Smith for eight years, recounted him as a dedicated public servant devoted to serving the community.
“That was his life, that’s what he was for,” he said.
“He was kind and neighborly, always open to collaboration. He will be missed.”
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez