Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar says he has asked the FBI and Washington DC law enforcement officials to look at the photos to determine if the employee broke laws. Credit: Facebook / Bexar County Sheriff's Office

For the third time this year, the Bexar County Commissioners Court has approved Sheriff Javier Salazar’s request for more overtime pay for deputies, MySA reports.

The approval for 140,000 hours of overtime pay comes with a price tag of $5.6 million, the news site reports. Some 255 Bexar County Jail employees have either quit, retired or been fired, requiring deputies to work extra hours to oversee the overcrowded facility, according to Salazar.

According to MySA, Salazar estimates the sheriff’s office ultimately will need the court to approve a total of 335,629 hours of overtime pay, or $13.5 million, this fiscal year. However, the county has only budgeted about $8 million.

In addition to the staff shortages, Salazar blamed inadequate mental health services and a lack of drug treatment centers for deputies’ overtime hours at the jail. He estimates that nearly 18% of the 4,500 inmates at the lockup belong in treatment centers, according to MySA.

With the help of a private consulting firm, Salazar’s office will present a report on the Bexar County Jail to the court sometime in July, according to the news site.

Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.

Related Stories

This article appears in Jun 15-28, 2022.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...