MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Zapata County Sheriff's Office is to maintain social order and provide professional law enforcement services to citizens in the community, including, but not limited to, victims of crime, the elderly, and the youth, within prescribed ethical, budgetary, and constitutional constraints. This office strives to enforce the law and maintain order in a fair and impartial manner, recognizing the need for justice, and consistent appearance of justice.

The Zapata County Sheriff's Office recognizes that no law enforcement agency can operate at its maximum potential without supportive input from the citizens it serves. This Office actively solicits and encourages the cooperation of all citizens to reduce and limit the opportunities for crime, and to assist in bringing to justice those that break the law.

The mission of the Zapata County Jails is to protect the community at large by the housing of persons charged with various crimes against the penal statutes.

While such persons are so confined it is the duty of the administration to safeguard the rights and secure the health and safety and well being of all such persons and staff.

The goal of the county jails is to abide by the percepts of the law and the courts, with human dignity ever in mind, striving to be able to release each person back into society in no worse condition, physically, mentally, or emotionally, than when he or she was received.

 

PHILOSOPHICAL STATEMENT

The Zapata County Sheriff's Office will do everything within its power to provide a community environment characterized by the relative absence of crime and the presence of public peace. This is the basic mission of every member of the Office and can be realized by:

•  Realizing that the employees of the Zapata County Sheriff's Office are the most important part of the organization and constantly striving to help them in their performance and development;

•  Recognizing that the spirit of the Zapata County Sheriff's Office is of helping people and providing assistance at every opportunity;

•  Enlightening citizen attitudes towards public safety and obtaining a spirit of community cooperation;

•  Promoting the development of police professionalism through the impartial enforcement of laws and strict adherence to ethical and moral responsibilities;

•  Developing police leadership throughout the Office in order to effectively utilize allocated resources and maximize productivity;

•  Delivering effective service to the community through the proactive development of service alternatives, personal initiative, and program initiative; and,

•  Utilizing sworn personnel exclusively in enforcement and peace-keeping roles while making maximum use of the capabilities of non-sworn personnel in support functions.

 

Professionalism, protection, service, respect, and courtesy are the watchwords of the Zapata County Sheriff's Office. All members of the Office will constantly strive to let the virtues represented by these concepts guide their actions and decisions.