A Texas sheriff whose office drew national scrutiny and an FBI investigation following a shooting last year in which a man is accused of killing five of his neighbors has lost his reelection bid.

No, not that Texas sheriff who was under scrutiny following a mass shooting, this one

Greg Capers had sought a fourth term as sheriff in San Jacinto County, which is about 60 miles (97 km) north of Houston.

But on Tuesday, Capers lost the Republican nomination for sheriff to San Jacinto County Precinct 3 Constable Sam Houston. With no Democratic candidates on the ballot Tuesday, Houston is set to be elected the new sheriff in November.

Capers drew criticism for initially providing inaccurate information about deputies’ response time to the April 2023 shooting in which Francisco Oropeza is accused of killing his neighbors after they had asked him to stop shooting his gun near their house. The attack happened near the town of Cleveland, north of Houston.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240306181509/https://apnews.com/article/texas-sheriff-greg-capers-election-d1748ed0d68d9c84f3baaa27582075f4

  • Igloojoe@lemm.ee
    2·
    9 months ago

    Most LEO are just hired and trained under top level officers supervision. Top level officers are elected. Thus the public can vote their ass out if they turn out to be criminals.

    Otherwise, the only oversight they would have would be the mayor, which the mayor would have their own private army basically. Doing whatever the mayor wants or they are fired…

    • n2burns@lemmy.ca
      3·
      8 months ago

      You make a few wrong assumptions about how bureaucrats are appointed in Canada. I’ll speak about Ontario municipalities, because that’s what I’m most familiar with, but I believe the process in most other provinces is very similar.

      For municipalities with their own police, the chief is not appointed by the mayor, they are recommended by the police board (made up of council members (often including the mayor) and civilians) and are approved by the whole council. Similarly, if they are to be removed, the mayor would not be able to do that on their own, they would need the support of council.

      Also, it’s not just the council who has oversight. Municipalities are a creature of the provincial government, so they can overrule a municipality. This process may seem similar to what can happen in US states, but the difference is that it’s overriding the decision of municipal politicians (to not remove a police chief), rather than removing a duly elected politician (impeachment).

      I know it’s hard to see things a different way than the how it’s “normal” where you are (I have a few personal experiences doing this), so I can see how it might seem that politicians could corrupt these bureaucrats under them. However, as a Canadian, I can say it’s pretty great having an independent judiciary, elections administrators, and even police (to the extent that police can be great). There have definitely been issues with politicians trying to force through friendly appointments (we had a controversy just over 5 years ago with a nomination to lead the provincial police), but it’s generally worked out fairly well. Since appointments are within the system of governance, there are some “checks and balances” which I know Americans love to tout.