DA taps leader for policing reviews
Division will examine cop-involved cases
Bexar County District Attorney Joe D. Gonzales on Tuesday named veteran prosecutor Daryl Harris as chief of his office’s new civil rights division, which will review police use-of-force cases that result in deaths or injuries.
Bexar County commissioners approved funding for the division in October. It will handle cases of officer-involved shootings, custodial deaths and allegations of excessive force by law enforcement, the office said in a statement Tuesday.
The division, staffed with two prosecutors, an investigator and an advocate, will report directly to Gonzales.
“Over the summer, amid growing awareness of the need for transparency and independence in Bexar County and beyond, I saw the need to create a division dedicated specifically to these offenses,” Gonzales said. “Daryl is a dedicated public servant. Like me, he has seen the need to make change to how our office handles these cases. He is already conducting reviews and looking for new ways to make our process as fair and independent as possible.”
Harris has been with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office since 2002. Among his prosecutions was the case of a dangerous dog attack in which a pit bull terrier maimed a senior citizen in 2017, and last year, the case of Jamal Harris, no relation, who was convicted of a series of rapes in the Medical Center area.
Daryl Harris also has served as the deputy chief of the criminal trial division and chief of the intake division. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Kansas State University and St. Mary’s University School of Law. Harris served as an Army officer until 2001.
He said he has watched the reporting about officerinvolved shootings and has evaluated the ongoing national debate about such incidents in recent years.
“I have considered these arguments as a Black man, a father, a retired soldier, an attorney, a career prosecutor, but most importantly as an American citizen,” Harris said in a written statement. “The discourse in 2020 has been particularly intense in this country.”
All residents have rights that must be protected and respected, he stressed, adding, “I think those in uniform agree with that.”
“All police officers — in every department — are authorized to use force when necessary to serve and protect us. I think the public knows and agrees with that,” Harris continued. “These two points come into conflict when a citizen is injured or killed by a police officer. That conflict defines the space where the Civil Rights Division must live and do our work.”
He vowed to comb through each case “thoroughly, rigorously and evenhandedly, as the public expects and the law requires.”
“I understand that this approach will frustrate or upset either side in one case or another. I accept that; but the only promise I make is that we will always seek to do the harder right instead of the easier wrong,” Harris said.
Later Tuesday, Gonzales reiterated on a Zoom call with reporters that even if his office concludes a criminal charge against an officer is inappropriate or would be difficult to prove, all such cases will go to a grand jury, and a memo explaining the reasons will be posted on the DA’S website.