Harris County Commissioners Vote To Give Sheriff Deputies Pay Parity With Houston Police

Harris County Commissioners Vote To Give Sheriff Deputies Pay Parity With Houston Police

By | Texas Scorecard | May 22, 2025

Harris County commissioners voted 3-2 on Thursday to increase pay for sheriff deputies in order to achieve pay parity with Houston police. Commissioners also voted to establish a cross-departmental committee to determine how the county will fund the salary increase.

County officials estimated the cost of the raises will be about $140 million per year.

Earlier this year, Houston Mayor John Whitmire unveiled a sweeping five-year contract proposal that would boost Houston Police Department starting salaries from approximately $64,000 to $81,000 by July 2025.

Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies had warned that without significant salary adjustments, many deputies would leave the department when faced with a $24,000 first-year salary gap with HPD.

Jose Lopez, president of the Harris County Deputies’ Organization, described the vote as “monumental,” telling Texas Scorecard, “We are happy and excited that our deputies are now going to be better compensated and appreciated for the hard work they have been doing all of these years.”

We thank Commissioner Briones, Commissioners Ramsey and Garcia for not just telling us they were committed but actually showing us by passing the measure today.

Lopez said that deputies had displayed commendable resilience.

“We thank them for the hard work they do every day, and we can now tell them to hold on, because pay parity is coming October 1st of this year.”

Harris County was already facing a reported $130 million budget deficit before the vote.

Commissioner Ramsey assured the public that funding would not be an issue if the county focused its spending on statutorily required budget items instead of wish-list items.

With this vote, the increase will be baked into next year’s budget.

This week, the sheriff’s office also announced plans to bring back inmates outsourced to out-of-state prisons as the local jail population drops. Currently, housing inmates in out-of-state facilities costs about $54 million per year, which could instead be used to partially fund the salary increases.

Joseph is a journalist for Texas Scorecard reporting from Houston. With a background in business, Joseph is passionate about covering issues impacting citizens.