The Hays County Sheriff oversees county policing, manages the jail, executes warrants, provides court security and coordinates with other law enforcement agencies to ensure public safety.
Current Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler is not running for reelection.
Anthony Hipolito (REP)
What made you decide to run for sheriff this year?
“This is something I wanted to do for a long time, probably the last 10 to 15 years. It was time this year because Sheriff Cutler is retiring at the end of his term.”
What are your qualifications for office?
“I have 26 years of law enforcement experience. I policed in the [11th] largest city in the country, in Austin; so I can bring that level of policing to a growing Hays County.”
What would be your top priority if elected?
“My priority is always going to be public safety. Everybody should be able to walk around [their] neighborhoods without being in fear of anything happening to [them].”
How will you handle the fentanyl crisis in Hays County?
“That’s an ongoing battle that we’re going to continue to fight, not only with fentanyl but with every drug out there because every drug today is going to have fentanyl in it. It’s a three-pronged approach, with the education, but also the enforcement part of it and then the third prong of that is to collaborate with our community.”
There’s been an uptick in threats against schools recently. How will you work to ensure the security of local schools?
“Collaborating with our school districts, being more proactive, doing more education, getting the word out to our students on how serious of a matter this is and how serious we’re going to continue to take it here at the sheriff’s office. We’re going to continue to file charges on students or adults that are just haphazardly making these threats.”
Hays County is one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation. What will you do to ensure that the sheriff department’s resources are able to keep up with growth?
“That’s where the relationship with our county commissioners comes in. I’ve got really good relationships with everyone on that dais. If you don’t stay on top of the growth, if you’re not forward thinking and continuing to grow the sheriff’s office to ensure that we have enough deputies on the streets, you can fall behind quickly and crime will soar.”
Along with policing, sheriffs also run county jails. How will you run the jail if elected?
“What I want to do in regards to our jail is to do everything I can to bring as many of our prisoners back to Hays County. It’s not about the money. When we outsource prisoners, it affects the efficiency of the justice system.”
How will you work with the courts and district attorney to ensure that criminal proceedings are done in a timely manner?
“If we have that constant dialogue between all law enforcement and the district attorney’s office, we can be successful with ensuring that the cases are being heard. And I think those conversations not only need to be had with the [district attorney], but also the elected judges. We’re all one big team.”
Alex Villalobos (DEM)
What made you decide to run for sheriff?
“I’ve always wanted to be an elected sheriff. I saw early on that when you have these philosophical discussions of professionalizing the industry of law enforcement, that you have to be in a policy-making position.”
What are your qualifications for office?
“I’ve got just under 7,000 training hours within law enforcement. I’ve also been an elected leader by the city of Kyle, where I was elected into that position by thousands of people.”
What would be your top priority if elected?
“One of the top ones is to really assess the entire organization, to see where they’re at in all aspects, see where we can maximize our resources in the best interest of the county.”
How will you handle the fentanyl crisis in Hays County?
“One of the things I’d like to do is build out programming on community engagement, not only in our schools but within the communities, to have an understanding when we have a trend that can be critical, like fentanyl, that comes to us then we should be out in front of it before it becomes a crisis in our community.”
There’s been an uptick in threats against schools recently. How will you work to ensure the security of local schools?
“I think the biggest issue that we have with these threats is how we do threat assessment. We don’t want to be in a position where we have knee-jerk reactions that we’re shutting down schools on a regular basis, because we have to create an environment that’s conducive to learning and success to academics.”
Hays County is one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation. What will you do to ensure that the sheriff’s department resources are able to keep up with growth?
“That’s one of the things where I feel like being a chief of staff and elected city council member gives me perspective on where I can advocate for resources. I don’t see a whole lot of law enforcement coming to the open houses when it comes to the bond open house [or] when it comes to any kind of infrastructure improvement or creation within our county.”
Along with policing, sheriffs also run county jails. How will you run the jail if elected?
“We have been listed as the most violent jail in Texas. A lot of these programs that I bring forward will lessen that. We want to be a nationally accredited organization that’s a leader in corrections and law enforcement and community building.”
How will you work with the courts and district attorney to ensure that criminal proceedings are done in a timely manner?
“By having regular and consistent meetings with those different divisions, understanding what those needs are, listening to what those needs are, making sure that we’re all on the same page with regards to maintaining the constitutional rights of all people that come into the system.”
