Will scrutiny over jail deaths unseat the Tarrant County Sheriff? Sheriff Bill Waybourn has faced intense backlash for months over some high-profile deaths in his jail. His opponent, Patrick Moses, says it shows a failure of leadership. NBC 5’s Tahera Rahman spoke to both candidates.
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Republican Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn has faced intense backlash over high-profile deaths at his jail. His opponent, Democrat Patrick Moses, says it shows a failure in leadership.
NBC 5 had a chance to sit down with both candidates before viewers on Tuesday decide who will be sheriff for the next four years. Waybourn told NBC 5 that most of the 60 deaths that have occurred in his eight years were at a hospital and were due to the person being chronically ill or on drugs. He said his staff performs 80,000 checks on inmates per day and that they had 44,000 mental health referrals last year and stopped over 279 suicides.
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Moses is retired from the U.S. Homeland Security Department's Armed Protective Services branch, where he was an assistant director of field operations. He's now a local pastor. He said the sheriff is the leader, is accountable, and the public deserves transparency about each inmate's death.
Before becoming sheriff in Tarrant County, Waybourn was the chief of the Dalworthington Gardens Police Department for more than thirty years.
In 2020, Waybourn won reelection against Vance Keyes with 52.67% of the vote. In 2016, Waybourn defeated Max W. Koch III with 81% of the vote. This is Moses's second time running for office. In 2021, he was among a crowded group of nearly two dozen Republicans and Democrats who ran to fill the U.S. House District 6 seat left vacant by the death of Arlington Congressman Ron Wright.
Earlier this year, Moses received 54.79% of the vote in the Democratic primary. Waybourn ran unopposed in the Republican primary.
