The race to lead the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has drawn a crowded field of candidates vying to become the next top law enforcement officer in the county.

Democrats Robert “Bobby” Flores, Michael Gonzales, Raul Mendiola, Oscar Ugarte and Ryan Urrutia are seeking to replace Sheriff Richard Wiles, who is not seeking reelection and is retiring after 15 years on the job.

Three of the candidates are being backed by longtime El Paso elected officials: Wiles is backing Urrutia and is serving as his campaign treasurer, while former Congressman Silvestre Reyes is backing Flores. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, is supporting Ugarte.

The candidates, all experienced law enforcement officers, will face off in the March 5 Democratic primary. If none gains more than 50% of the votes, a runoff election with the two top vote-getters will be required in May. Early voting for the March primary begins Feb. 20.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Minerva Torres Shelton, who’s running unopposed in the Republican primary, in the November general election.

The county sheriff oversees a department with a $122 million budget and about 580 detention officers, 270 deputies and 110 civilian staff. The Sheriff’s Department is responsible for enforcing laws within El Paso County, overseeing criminal investigations, drug detection programs, jail administration and patrolling county roads.

The county sheriff currently earns $190,226 a year and serves a four-year term.

El Paso Matters interviewed the candidates in the contested Democratic race on their key priorities, including addressing how officers interact with people with mental health illnesses. Here’s how the candidates responded.

Robert “Bobby” Flores

Flores, 54, a retired assistant chief who spent 33 years with the Sheriff’s Office, said that while public safety is the sheriff’s primary responsibility, the jail system and providing mental health assistance for people with severe mental illnesses are also key.

“Having been a jail commander at the jail annex, or the assistant chief, one of the issues that I witnessed firsthand is the lack of mental health assistance,” Flores said in an interview with El Paso Matters.

Flores said while the county has a contract with Emergence Health Network, the largest mental health service provider in the area, there are staffing shortages for clinicians in the jails to help provide those services.

“We really have to look at the community, bringing stakeholders from the mental health treatment side to the table to help us, or helping us with this vulnerable population,” he said.

Flores said he fully supports the department’s crisis intervention team program, but noted that it is not solving all of the problems.

The Sheriff’s Office launched its crisis intervention program in April 2021 and has since expanded from three to 10 teams that pair a deputy with a mental health clinician.

The program aims to improve law enforcement officers’ ability to safely intervene, help those people connect to mental health services, and when possible, divert them from the criminal justice system.

Flores said he wants to work with other mental health providers, agencies and judges to expedite getting those with minor offenses out of jail and into treatment.

Among his other priorities, Flores said he wants to look into starting a program with the courts that involves having individuals convicted of a felony turn in any firearms they may have so that they do not end up in the wrong hands.

“Then we can do what we do with it and it never reaches the streets as opposed to him or her going home and saying well, I can’t possess this rifle anymore. Let me give it to my neighbor,” he said.

Flores has outraised his competitors with about $106,000 in campaign contributions, including about $4,300 in the latest reporting period, his Feb. 5 campaign finance reports show. Flores reported about $2,200 in in-kind contributions in the latest filing period for event invitations and for social media posts on FitFam El Paso. His largest campaign contribution this filing period was $1,000 from John Levy, documents show.

Michael Gonzales

Gonzales, 48, an El Paso Independent School District police officer who has spent 27 years in law enforcement, said mental health issues hit close to home.

“I actually have a family member who has gone through bipolar Schizophrenia and has seeked help her entire life and now at the age of 28 is doing wonderful because of all the services and the people that are out there,” Flores said during a candidate forum Jan. 31.

The Jan. 31 forum focused on mental health issues in the criminal justice system and was hosted by the El Paso chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness in partnership with El Paso Matters.

Gonzales said one way to address the ongoing needs of those with mental health issues is more training for deputies, partnering with more local organizations and addressing the mental health needs of people who are incarcerated.

“I think that the more time that you spend, especially working with different agencies, district attorneys, county attorneys, the understanding of what individuals are going through that’s the most important thing,” he said.

Gonzales said the department should be looking for grants for new programs to address mental health needs in the community beyond the CITs and partnership with Emergence.

He also said, if elected, he wants to work with the community to find solutions to address issues with the department ranging from mental health, the role of deputies in schools and find ways to retain and grow the force.

“It makes a huge difference when you have an entire community working together for solutions,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales has raised about $7,000 for the race, campaign finance reports show. Gonzales had not filed his report for the 30th day before the election, county election records show. 

Raul Mendiola

Mendiola, 73, a retired El Paso police officer who now works with the Ysleta Independent School District police department, said there needs to be yearly mental health training for deputies and the department needs to ensure those with mental health issues get the attention they need.

“We need to make sure that they don’t hurt themselves. We need to make sure we’re there for them,” Mendiola said.

He also said deputies need to be equipped with less lethal tools in the field if a situation with someone in a mental health crisis escalates and a deputy has to use force.

“When an officer deals with a mental patient in the field the Taser sometimes works, but a lot of times it doesn’t affect a person high on drugs – a Taser does nothing to them,” he said.

Mendiola said he would want to look into having officers have the first three rounds of their firearms be loaded with rubber bullets, rather than regular ammunition.

“To the point where it’s maybe going to break a bone, maybe we bring them down enough for the officer to be able to subdue him or her – this way we wouldn’t be killing them,” Mendiola said.

Mendiola said if officers had this alternative, it could prevent fatal officer-involved shootings like the one that occurred in Las Cruces in 2022 where a Las Cruces police officer allegedly fatally shot 75-year-old Amelia Baca, who had mental health issues.

“Sometimes officers don’t have time to wait for a CIT,” Mendiola said. “Officers carrying the first two, three rounds as rubber bullets, to me, that would be a safety factor to the point where you will not kill the person.”

Mendiola said another initiative he wants to develop if elected is a volunteer sheriff reserve program with both civilian and law enforcement officers. He said civilians would have to undergo background checks and screenings, but the idea is for the sheriff’s department to be able to rely on the reserve officers in various roles to help where needed. He also said he wants to revisit the department’s policies and procedures.

Mendiola raised $1,240 in campaign contributions as of Dec. 31, documents show, but he did not file his latest report due on Feb. 5 on time. Mendiola said he would file the report, but that he did not realize there was a report due in February, 30 days before the election. Mendiola  provided El Paso Matters a copy of the report he said his treasurer would file. He did not report any new campaign contributions, stating he is only taking donations from people who do not expect anything in return for the financial support.

Oscar Ugarte

Ugarte, 40, El Paso County constable for Precinct 1, said his approach to addressing mental health issues in the county is to provide all deputies with crisis intervention training, address the mental health needs of deputies, but also establish a social services unit.

“If we have a social services unit when that deputy goes to the house and he sees issues, but it’s not criminal, then he can actually dispatch a social worker from our department,” Ugarte said.

He said that social workers can help to find out what the root causes of the issues are and provide resources to the family in hopes of preventing them from committing a crime.

“If we don’t help them and they commit a crime and we send them to jail for three months or a year, then they come back to this community, and it’s going to be a revolving cycle,” he said.

Ugarte said he would look for federal or state funding through grants for the program.

He said the mental health of deputies working in the detention facilities also needs to be made a priority when they are working 10 to 12 hour shifts. Ugarte did not specify how to address any potential issues among deputies aside from revisiting the schedules.

“It’s a lot being in there, inside those jails for 12 hour shifts,” he said.

Another priority Ugarte said he wants to increase is community policing.

“I think there’s a disconnect between the community and law enforcement,” adding working with local organizations, being more visible in the community and having conversations with residents will help build better relationships.

Ugarte has raised about $41,000 in donations for his campaign, including about $11,000 during the latest filing period. Ugarte also loaned himself about $25,000, documents show. His donations have ranged from $10 to $1,500 with the largest $1,500 donation coming from Beatriz Diaz and $1,000 from the Joseph Moody campaign.

Ryan Urrutia

Urrutia, 50, a commander in the Sheriff’s Office who has been with the department since 1996, said he sees the need to increase crisis intervention team training for all deputies.

Urrutia, who developed the sheriff’s department CIT program, said all officers are mandated by the state to receive 40 hours of de-escalation training, and have the 40-hour mental health peace officer certifications, but he wants to exceed those standards by having all peace officers undergo crisis intervention training.

“It’s not a training that we’re allocating for all of our officers because it is a three week long training. So to roll that out is going to be time consuming, but to me offering it in our new officer courses, both retention and peace officers is essential,” He said.

Urrutia said it’s also about continuing to build and foster the relationships with local mental health partners to continue to improve responses and outcomes for those that are dealing with mental health issues and emergencies.

“We’re all involved and I’ve been involved in this community discussion for several years already, as we make these improvements as we work with such organizations,” he said.

Urrutia also said having appropriate mental health resources within the jails is important not only for individuals in custody, but for peace officers.

He said the department has been implementing mental health and peer support programs for officers.

“I think it needs to be robust and it needs to be very accessible and we’re working in that direction but we are far from done,” he said.

Urrutia said another priority is ensuring the department stays ahead of programs including replenishing aging equipment in a timely manner, expanding the school resource officer program as well as additional emergency response and active shooter training.

Urrutia has raised the second-largest amount of campaign contributions, totaling about $103,000, including $1,350 in the current filing period, documents show. He also received a $6,000 in-kind donation in the latest filing period for vehicle use and a wrap. His largest contributor this filing period was $1,000 from Joseph Gaskins, CEO of the Inner City Development Group.

Corrections: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described a proposal by candidate Bobby Flores. He wants to start a program with the courts to store weapons for those convicted of felonies. An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect age for candidate Raul Mendiola. He is 73.