SAN ANGELO – Tom Green Co. Sheriff Nick Hanna announced his bid for reelection on the steps of the Tom Green County Courthouse Wednesday evening surrounded by family, friends and staff.
Sheriffs in Texas are elected every four years. Hanna was elected in 2020 in the Republican Primary.
Hanna says he ran on making the Tom Green Co. Sheriff's Office the best one between El Paso and Ft. Worth.
Sheriff Hanna details his accomplishments and goals in the five minute video below:
According to the Texas Association of Counties, Sheriffs in Texas are elected law enforcement officers who enforce criminal laws, supervise county jails, provide security to the courts, and enforce court orders in civil and criminal cases.
Each of the 254 counties in Texas has a sheriff, as required by the Texas Constitution. Elected sheriffs hold a four-year term of office. If a vacancy arises, the County Commissioners Courtmay appoint a new sheriff to serve until the next general election.
The duties of county sheriffs in Texas are established by state law.
As a law enforcement officer, also called a peace officer, the sheriff has powers to arrest violators of state laws. The Code of Criminal Procedure (Art. 2.17) says, “Each sheriff shall be a conservator of the peace in his county, and shall arrest all offenders against the laws of the State, in his view or hearing, and take them before the proper court for examination or trial.”
Additionally, the sheriff has a broad mandate to preserve order in his jurisdiction. The Code says, “He shall quell and suppress all assaults and batteries, affrays, insurrections and unlawful assemblies. He shall apprehend and commit to jail all offenders, until an examination or trial can be had.”
Other duties include:
- Enforcing court orders such as evictions;
- Seizing property and assets on court orders;
- Serving warrants and legal papers;
- Managing and operating the county jail;
- Regulating bail bondsmen in counties with no bail bond board;
- Serving as tax assessor-collector in counties with a population of less than 10,000 inhabitants;
- Summoning grand jurors at the direction of a court.
As explained in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, the sheriff is required to provided to provide jurors “with such necessary food and lodging as he can obtain. No intoxicating liquor shall be furnished them.”
To serve as sheriff a person must be at least 21 years of age, must not have been convicted of a felony, and must have a a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate. The age requirement is lowered if the person has served at least two years in the U.S. military or completed 60 hours of college credit hours.
As a type of law enforcement officer, also called a peace officer, a county sheriff must obtain a license from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement within a year of taking office, if the sheriff does not already have such a license.
County sheriffs in Texas are also subject to a requirement to execute a bond before performing the duties of office, in an amount established by the commissioners court, between $5,000 and $30,000.
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