Rodney Thomas launched his campaign for Dallas County sheriff on Tuesday, which will see him facing off against incumbent Marian Brown and other challengers.
Thomas, 50, is an experienced professional with 20 years in law enforcement, as he has worked in both the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. He launched his campaign and announced his five-step plan in a video posted on Vimeo.
At one point in his career, he worked as a “Hospital Police Officer in the most violent hospital in New York City,” he said, noting his experience in law enforcement would be very valuable.
Thomas’ is campaigning on a five-step plan. The first step of his plan is “building the morale of the Dallas County Sheriffs.”
The second step is implementing community policing by “creating neighborhood resource officers that will connect with the community and community leaders.”
“As we’ve all seen, the culture of law enforcement has changed dramatically over the last two years, which has damaged the trust between law enforcement and the community,” said Thomas in the video. “We must build the trust back within our community.”
Thomas proceeds to outline the third and fourth steps of his plan during the video.
“Number three. Providing crisis intervention deputies that will address mental health events that take place, and have a safer outcome,” said Thomas. “Number four. Providing better equipment and training for our Dallas County patrol deputies, detention officers, and court officers by using federal funding.”
Finally, Thomas said the fifth step in his plan is to implement “investigative resources to address crimes that take place throughout Dallas County.”
Thomas said he hopes to effect change on a large scale.
“I felt I could make a positive change on a local level, and then hopefully, being able to restructure the sheriff’s department may be a blueprint for other law enforcement agencies to follow for restructuring,” he told The Dallas Morning News.
Current Dallas County Sheriff Brown has a long history in law enforcement, having begun her career in 1993.
Other challengers for the position include former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, who announced on June 29 that she will seek her fifth term, as The Dallas Express reported. Valdez served in the position from 2005 to 2017 before resigning to run for governor.
Thomas, Brown, and Valdez will face off in the Democratic primaries, which will be held in March 2024.
