Meet Keith Muncey who is Running for Tom Green County Sheriff

SAN ANGELO, TX — Keith Muncey has served the Tom Green County Sheriffs Office for 19 years. Now a lieutenant, Muncey said he wants to serve in a larger role as the sheriff. He is running for the Republican nomination for Tom Green County Sheriff.

Muncey’s top campaign issue is recruiting and retention at the Sheriff’s Office. Muncey wants to obtain funding, through grants primarily, to open an academy to train recruits and non-patrol employees of the Sheriff’s Office, such as the jailers, to become deputies. Providing a viable career path within the organization will help retain and train new deputies will aid retention, he said. Muncey started his career at the Sheriff’s Office as a jailer.

Drugs are the top crime problem in the county, he said. Muncey has volunteered as the D.A.R.E. instructor for years. “But D.A.R.E. has been cut over the years,” Muncey said. Muncey believes the D.A.R.E. program in public schools generates benefits by allowing interaction with children who eventually grow up to be adults. Those relationships the kids made with law enforcement officers in the public school continue into adulthood, providing continuous feedback to the sheriff’s office, he said.

Muncey shares his scariest moments during his 19 years in the Sheriff’s Office. One was during a chase north on U.S. 87 when a fellow patrol officer speeding ahead of him in another patrol car hit a deer. “The deer exploded onto me,” Muncey said. Muncey also came face-to-face with members of the FDLS during a perimeter patrol of the compound near Eldorado in 2008. He said FLDS men were guarding their compound and his rapid response team was patrolling outside the compound. Remembering what happened in Waco in 1993 at the Branch Davidians, law enforcement officers at the time were wary something similar may happen in Eldorado.

Muncey is facing former Texas Ranger Nick Hanna for the Republican nomination to run for Tom Green County Sheriff in the November 2020 election. The primary election is March 3.