Chief Birbeck talks jail, immigration as Young County Sheriff candidate
Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck announced he will run for Young County Sheriff against incumbent Travis Babcock. If he wins the March 5, 2024 Republican primary, Chief Birbeck would become the first Young County Sheriff to reside in Olney. This is the second in a series of talks with the candidates about County law enforcement issues.
The Enterprise: What changes would you make in the operation of Young County Jail?
Chief Birbeck: I would rely heavily on the jail administrator and also preparing ahead of time with researching and making sure that we’re all in compliance with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. In addition, as soon as possible after taking office I would conduct a comprehensive risk threat and vulnerability assessment of the jail to identify areas of risk to the County that need mitigating. A strategic corrective action plan will be drafted, and the report would be shared with the County Commissioners so that concerns requiring capital funding can be addressed. Other correction that can be made without funding would be addressed immediately. There are other opportunities in the jail to improve operations and I would work closely with my jail administrator daily and make sure that we are, one, in compliance with the law and two, ensuring a safe environment in the jail for not only the inmates but for the staff.
The Enterprise: You’ve talked a lot about trying to keep people out of the Jail. That’s been a big priority for you for the last couple of years. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Chief Birbeck: I think in a lot of respects law enforcement can be reactive and not proactive so I try to take a proactive approach with the community whether that’s looking at pathways to get to a rehab or address the root causes that caused people to re-offend and end up back in our jail.
We’ve done a lot of work on the mobile mental health crisis team that we’re waiting on state health services to write the qualifications for the grant we are seeking. As soon as that hits the ground, we’ll start working with the County to apply for that, to get that off the ground, and hopefully we can stop our jails from being mental health storage places and we give people some true mental health care access.
The other is trying to work with other programs in town, whether it be through religious groups or whatever, to address root causes of things that spur on recidivism.
The Enterprise: We have a problem with the juvenile system too. We have no juvenile beds in this area. What can you do about that?
Chief Birbeck: That’s a tough question. Currently, law enforcement agencies work closely with the Juvenile Probation Department in Young County. Ultimately, it would be the County’s responsibility to figure out what we can do with juveniles needing detention. So, I don’t know if that’s exploring … federal or state grants maybe to stand up [create] our own juvenile detention center in the area. That would create new jobs and give us a place for surrounding agencies to have access to a juvenile correction facility. Currently we have to travel quite a distance, sometimes several hours away to house juveniles.
The Ent erprise: How would you enforce Rep. David Spiller’s imm igration bill?
Chief Birbeck: The immigration topic is a very heated topic right now, obviously. Ultimately, immigration is a responsibility of the federal government. Unfortunately, Texas is at the forefront of this problem and is trying to mitigate the influx of immigrants coming across the border and through our communities. Local law enforcement are trained in not racially profiling our citizens so I think we have to be mindful of our citizens’ constitutional rights not to be profiled. What that would mean is that if deputies are stopping vehicles, it would be for an unrelated offense and then through their normal course of action address issues such as being in the country illegally. The main concern is stopping human trafficking for crimes such as sex trade or forced labor etc., then it would be reasonable for that officer to take appropriate actions based on whatever the governor and the Legislature has put in place for us to do. I’m sure that as these laws are coming on the books, they’re going to be challenged. We’ll just have to wait and see how those play out in the courts. But at the end of the day, I’m a public servant. And my job is to enforce the laws that our government hands me to enforce. And that’s what I’ll do. So, whatever they land on as a final ruling for that law is how we will handle it.
The Enterprise: You mentioned also that you had actually met with legal immigrant workers at a local employer to talk to them about Texas laws. How was that interaction?
Chief Birbeck: I think it’s really important to note that the employer is not hiring illegal immigrants. They are going through an employment agency and they are getting work visas to come to the country legally and work. They come with different cultures and different norms on how they live in the community and so what we have done is partnered with the employer to do orientations to keep them out of trouble with local law enforcement. And that could be anything from knowing that they’re going to be held accountable for driving with no driver’s license, which could include having their car impounded.
If they don’t have insurance they could be arrested for multiple violations all the way to some are riding bicycles and at night when they have to have the lights on the bicycles and things like that. So we have really tried to work with them to address that so that we don’t have those problems in the community.
So far that has been a very successful endeavor. We were seeing a lot of traffic stops and other pedestrian stops … and after we did the orientation, that almost is nonexistent.