Here are our choices in contested constable races

Most of us don’t give constables much thought. We know they’re cops of some kind, and in some parts of town their patrol cars are the ones we see most often. Their presence is reassuring.

Elected constables date to Texas’ frontier days. The state’s constitution empowers them to deliver warrants and other court documents, enforce the law and provide bailiffs in justice of the peace courts.

Based on reporting in the Chronicle’s news pages, however, we know that Harris County’s eight precincts, each headed by an elected constable, can be a tangle of competing interests, inefficiency and occasional corruption. Meanwhile, voters fret about how best to use tax dollars to ensure public safety.

Mayor John Whitmire has called for better coordination among law enforcement, and perhaps consolidation of some duties. Besides constables, there’s the sheriff ’s office, Houston police, state troopers and dozens of municipal, university, transit and other agencies.

Harris County Commissioners Court draws the constable precinct lines with each decade’s U.S. Census, often to achieve political aims. The process has produced wide disparities in precincts’ geographical areas and budgets — the latter also in the hands of commissioners. Precinct 5 in west Harris County, for example, encompasses 370 square miles with 1 million-plus residents. Precinct 6, in Houston’s East End, covers 32 square miles and serves about 170,000 residents.

Unsurprisingly, people running for constable in this year’s election contend that constables have a unique place in local law enforcement. They run programs that voters like, such as keeping an eye on kids and senior citizens, focusing on crime trouble spots and fighting animal cruelty.

They also oversee popular contract deputy arrangements in neighborhoods that pay the county for extra patrols. We wonder if pay-for-police deals disadvantage neighborhoods that can’t afford them, but advocates say increased police presence in one area benefits adjacent ones too.

Democrats in six Harris County precincts will nominate candidates in contested primaries. No Republican candidates are opposed in their party’s primary, though some will face Democrats in the November general election.

The constable system would benefit from streamlining and thoughtful redistricting. Since we don’t expect that anytime soon, we offer these recommendations in contested races.

Alan Rosen for Precinct 1, Democrat

Since becoming constable of Precinct 1 in 2012, Alan Rosen has tried to help the young, the old, the mentally ill, the homeless, the drug-addicted. He also serves those everyday folks just trying to live their lives in safe neighborhoods. We think Rosen, 55, should continue that work.

Nevertheless, this endorsement is giving us heartburn.

In 2021, the undercover anti-prostitution task force under Rosen was involved in a scandal that cast a pall over his whole department.

Early in Rosen’s current term, several acting deputies and former deputies filed a lawsuit in federal court, accusing department supervisors of sexual misconduct against female subordinates. Though Rosen and two men who reported to him were named, all three were dropped from the suit.

But the women are still suing Harris County, claiming in part that they were told to dress as prostitutes and act the part at “bachelor parties.” During these events, the women allege, they were subjected to “sexual harassment, unwarranted touching, unwanted kissing, molestation and sexual ridicule.”

Rosen says he believes the whole case will be dismissed, that he’s disappointed a lawsuit was ever filed, that people can say anything in a lawsuit. After that he says he can’t really talk about it because he will be a witness if the case does continue.

“I take all these things very seriously,” Rosen says. “It’s never my intention for any undercover officer to have anything less than a good working environment.”

But those 2021 bachelor-party stings were not the only operations that put female officers in danger of intimate crimes.

Chronicle files also show that a sting at a Massage Heights near the Texas Medical Center resulted in the sexual assault of a Constable 1 undercover deputy in 2019. Supervisors knew of the risk because a colleague had been assaulted by a massage therapist there just days earlier.

Immediately after the attack, Rosen held a press conference, proclaiming that his employees apprehended the bad guy — even as a supervisor told the deputy to drive herself to the hospital for a sexual assault examination.

In this primary, Rosen faces the same opponent as in 2020. Gilberto Reyna, a retired law enforcement officer, spent 35 years with the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office and other police agencies, including Precinct 1. But we’ve seen little evidence that he has management experience or even an active campaign. He did not accept our invitation to meet with the editorial board.

Rosen makes a solid case for his fourth term. There’s no question the office has grown under his direction.

In addition to the normal constable chores, Rosen and his staff are responsible for security at the downtown courthouse complex. And for the entirety of Harris County, they handle mental health warrants, juvenile processes and environmental and animal cruelty investigations. Rosen also has established teen leadership summits, a crimes against children task force, a game room task force and hotlines to report everything from human trafficking to stray dogs.

Some think he will run for sheriff one day. “At the moment,” Rosen says, “my only plan is to get re-elected.”

Jerry Garcia for Precinct 2, Democrat

Precinct 2 Constable Jerry Garcia needs few words to explain why he deserves a second term: “Proven results. I did what I said I would do.”

His record supports that.

Garcia, 51, took office in 2021, assuming responsibility for a precinct that covers 108 square miles in east and southeast central Harris County, and has an annual budget of $12.2 million. He had three priorities:

1) Crime. Garcia has added 26 deputies who patrol under contract with neighborhoods and other entities that pay for the extra security. His office’s total authorized deputy strength is now 92, with just one of those positions vacant.

2) Homelessness. He created a homeless outreach team, which cleared encampments under freeways and found housing for 200 people.

3) Training. With police nationwide under fire for violent incidents, Garcia has almost quadrupled the hours devoted to training.

His opponent in the Democratic primary is David Garza, who has served 28 years as a Pasadena officer after seven years as a Harris County deputy constable and three in the University of Texas Police Department.

Garza chose not to meet with the editorial board, and though his résumé is impressive, we believe Garcia has earned another term.

Constable Sherman Eagleton for Precinct 3, Democrat

In early 2022, 11-year-old Darius Dugas was killed by gunfire as he went to retrieve his jacket from his mother’s car. When Precinct 3 Constable Sherman Eagleton learned of the death, he picked up the phone.

Soon Eagleton was talking to Mark Herman, constable of Precinct 4. Each man agreed to donate $5,000 of his own money to pay for the child’s funeral.

“Hey man,” Eagleton remembers saying. “I think this family is having a hard time.”

Eagleton talks passionately about Darius and all the residents of Precinct 3, where he has worked for 31 years, the last seven as constable. The district stretches from Baytown north to Lake Houston.

Eagleton is eloquent about fighting crime, getting drugs off the street and stopping illegal dumping. He embraces body cameras and citizen videos. And he is adamant that statistics are part of modern policing.

But there’s something old-fashioned, in a good way, about Eagleton, 58. He brags about wellness checks for senior citizens, and he loves a program called “Coffee with a cop.”

The controversies on Eagleton’s watch don’t faze us.

Chronicle stories from 2021 show that he hired Chris Diaz, a former Precinct 2 constable who was voted out of office after egregious errors in his campaign finance reports surfaced.

“I gave him a second chance, and he’s doing a great job,” Eagleton says. “He told me he had baggage, and I told him, if you don’t do what’s right, I’ll send you down the road.”

In 2017, Eagleton took a different approach with Milton Rivera, a Precinct 3 chief deputy accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate workplace behavior. After a Harris County Attorney’s Office investigation, Eagleton fired him.

We consider Eagleton far superior to his challenger, John Jay Portillo, a businessman and former law enforcement officer with a checkered history.

A KHOU investigation showed that Portillo was fired from his job as police chief of Coffee City last year, and the entire police force was disbanded. Among Channel 11’s findings was that Portillo swelled the police force to 50 officers in a town whose entire population was only 250, often hiring officers who’d run into trouble in previous jobs. The officers wrote far more traffic tickets than you expect for a town so small, and used their law enforcement credentials to get contract jobs in other jurisdictions.

Portillo dismissed the complaints as “just politics.”

Jerome Moore for Precinct 5 constable, Democrat

Two Democratic primary candidates for Precinct 5 constable, both experienced law enforcement officers, know how it feels to be mistreated by police.

Gerardo “Jerry” Rodriguez, 41, says he was 19 and leaving a hot dog restaurant when he and his friends were wrongly arrested and hauled off to jail.

Jerome Moore, now 50, says he was 24 and in a car with three other young Black men when police ordered them to halt. “We’re gonna teach you guys to stop,” he remembers one officer shouting. “Shut up!”

Moore and Rodriguez say those run-ins inspired them to become law enforcement officers.

“We have to treat people the way they want to be treated,” Moore says. “Be the change,” says Rodriguez.

The two share other similarities. Both have master’s degrees and endless appetites for training and continuing education.

They work and live in Precinct 5, which encompasses much of west Houston and west Harris County.

Both respect their boss, Precinct 5’s popular incumbent Ted Heap, who is retiring.

But, the candidates say, the office needs a refresh, including a more diverse workforce.

It’s a close call, but we give the nod to Moore.

Currently a lieutenant, he spent two years working as chief deputy to the constable in Precinct 2. He has more administrative experience than Rodriguez, a sergeant. Moore can manage the precinct’s complicated budget.

“I can do the job on day one,” he says.

The other two Democratic primary candidates, who chose not to meet with the editorial board, are Don Dinh and William Gorman.

Sylvia Treviño for Precinct 6 Constable, Democrat

Precinct 6 Constable Silvia Treviño is part of a political dynasty in Houston’s East End. She no doubt benefited from name recognition when she won the office — two years after her husband stepped down from it because of a criminal conviction.

Her challenger in the Democratic primary, Art Aguilar, 49, is a former Precinct 6 deputy who has some good ideas and understands the office’s inner workings. But we believe running a multimillion-dollar agency requires more management experience than appears on his résumé.

Treviño, a former Houston police officer, didn’t respond to the editorial board’s invitations to discuss her reelection bid. In the past we’ve criticized her for gaps in her knowledge of the constable’s office and law enforcement issues.

We recommend her this year in hopes that eight years of on-the-job training have alleviated those shortcomings.

No Republican is seeking the office this year, so the Democratic primary will decide the race.

On her campaign website, Treviño lists accomplishments including adding a fourth patrol district, posting regular crime reports on social media and dispatching bicycle deputies to patrol parks and bayou trails.

But we didn’t get to ask her about Aguilar’s claims that she has been slow to fill budgeted deputy positions.

Treviño’s husband, longtime Constable Victor Treviño Jr., resigned in 2014 after pleading guilty to charges that he took money for personal use that was intended for a charity he founded. He was sentenced to 10 years’ probation.

Silvia Treviño was not charged in that case. She won the seat in 2016, and again in 2020.

Her son, Victor Treviño III, won election that year as a justice of the peace in Precinct 6, ushering in a new generation of Treviño-family politicians.

James “Smokie” Phillips for Precinct 7 constable, Democrat

Three veteran Houston lawmen are running in the Democratic primary to succeed longtime Precinct 7 Constable May Walker. Walker, who’s retiring, has not endorsed a successor.

Precinct 6 is home to half a million people in south Harris County, including Third Ward, South Park, Sunnyside and Reliant Park. No Republican is running in the historically Democratic district, so this primary will decide the election.

Seeking the office are Gary Hicks

Sr., Michael Coleman, and James “Smokie” Phillips.Hicks, 62, a former HPD officer, works now as a warrant officer and mental health specialist in Constable Precinct 1.

His knowledge of community-oriented policing reflects his decades as a street cop, but we believe he comes up short in administrative experience necessary to run an agency like Precinct 7.

That leaves a hard choice.

Coleman, 57, was a deputy for 20 years in Constable Precinct 5 in West Harris County, retiring as a captain in 2016. He then served as a captain in the University of Houston Police Department until August of 2023, when he began his third campaign for Precinct 7 constable.

He holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from Lamar University, and said he would push education and training for officers.

Phillips, 63, has 37 years in law enforcement, including 18 years as a captain in Precinct 7.

He expressed passion for fighting violent crime and illegal dumping. He wants to look into establishing a “termination board,” including community members, to review deputy firings. To recruit young deputies, he advocates relaxing Walker’s rules on tattoos and facial hair.

Phillips’ law enforcement history includes a blemish: In 1996, he was named in a federal indictment alleging he used his position to provide security and surveillance for a drug ring. A jury convicted him, but the judge ordered a new trial. The charge was dismissed at prosecutors’ request in August of 1997.

Phillips contends the charges were political and prompted by his complaints about racial inequities in county law enforcement. In any case, his police career has continued for almost 30 years since then.

We believe Phillips’ experience in the Precinct 7 office gives him an edge.