El Paso Sheriff shifts funding for body cameras, Tasers after arbitration decision

An arbitrator’s ruling last week handed El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles (D) a setback in his goals to save money by civilianizing certain positions. But he’s still moving forward with a plan to get body cameras and Tasers, originally supported by those savings.

“We certainly knew that that arbitration was pending,” Wiles said to El Paso County Commissioners Monday. “And we had what we felt was a backup plan to cover the year three, four and five. So if you look at our budget, because of some changes we made on the twelve hour shifts, we had some supervisory positions that we had not filled for over two years.”

Wiles said that with the savings already realized from the civilianization of some processing positions at the El Paso County Jail, it will now take eliminating a couple of supervisor positions that had been unfilled for years and were not part of the ruling to fund the rest of the five-year data storage contract that comes along with the body camera and Taser deal.

But commissioners did have questions about the new hiring Wiles said he would need to cover more federal inmates at the jail.

“I support the body cameras, and I supported doing for your department what we normally don’t do for other departments,” El Paso County Judge Veroncia Escobar (D) said, referring to the midyear budget shift Wiles had asked for to make the Taser deal work. “But I would ask that you stay in close communication with (Chief Administrator) Betsy (Keller) before making any new hiring decisions. I know it’s budgeted and your purview, you know, you run your department how you see fit, but just while we’re still evaluating this and have not made a decision yet, if you would just consider waiting just a little bit.”

Wiles has argued that the cost of housing the federal inmates is offset by the funding that comes with them. That’s been a point of dispute with some commissioners like Vince Perez (D), Precinct 3. The vote came down three to two for the funding change, with commissioners Perez and David Stout (D), Precinct 2, voting against.

“When you’re sitting in those chairs, and you’re dealing with budgets and money, you have to be very cautious, so I can certainly be understanding about why some may be hesitant,” Wiles said. “But in fact, my contention is that the funding is there, and we will not be coming back asking for more funds.”

The sheriff’s opponent in the upcoming election, Tom Buchino, has previously told ABC-7 he agreed with the arbitrator’s decision, stating “I will not put a price tag on public safety.”