Three years before deaths inside the Tarrant County Jail led to renewed scrutiny by elected officials and community members, sheriff’s office personnel drafted policies that would have set standards for how all employees handle use-of-force incidents.
Records obtained by the Fort Worth Report and KERA show a lieutenant drafted more than 450 pages of general orders at the request of command staff in 2021 — but they were never implemented. The draft was intended to provide overarching guidelines for all employees, which do not currently exist; staff rely on policies specific to their individual division.
In internal meetings between 2018 and 2024, sheriff’s office employees shared concerns about existing division policies and sought clarity on how to move forward, citing confusion over how to keep up with informal updates and unclear procedures. Some division policies, including the jail’s use-of-force policy, have not been updated in more than a decade, according to previous KERA reporting.
The sheriff’s office and Sheriff Bill Waybourn have faced sharp criticism in the months following Anthony Johnson Jr.’s in-custody death, which was ruled a homicide. Two detention officers have been fired in connection with Johnson’s death and face murder charges.
Johnson family attorney Daryl Washington said the treatment Johnson faced leading up to his death resulted from a lack of policies. Johnson’s family believes a general policy, enforced for all sheriff’s office staff, could have prevented his death.
“There's no doubt that we believe that if you have properly trained jailers, it could have played a major role,” Washington said.
In a written statement, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said it continues to hold its employees accountable, including filing criminal charges when appropriate.
“It has already been established that policy was violated in the Johnson case,” the sheriff’s office said in response to questions about the 2021 draft. “We can’t assume what may or may not have happened with more policy in place.”
At least 65 people have died while in Tarrant County custody since Waybourn took office in 2017. The Republican sheriff is seeking reelection in November.
Johnson’s death in April has sparked legal action against the county and calls for transparency and accountability from Waybourn, who has declined to make standard operating policies public. County Commissioner Alisa Simmons has said that, in her capacity as an elected official, she has been unable to obtain a copy of operating procedures.
Miltonette Craig, criminal justice and criminology assistant professor at Sam Houston State University, said it’s hard to say whether office-wide policies in addition to division-specific procedures would have prevented Johnson’s death.
However, she said, the lack of transparency to the public — including county officials — is cause for concern about how current policies are implemented within the office.
“If it's hard for government officials to get this policy, I wonder how difficult it is for people who work there to get the policy,” Craig said. “And how do we know that they've even opened the document? And just because rules exist doesn't mean that people follow them.”
Internal meeting notes obtained by the Fort Worth Report and KERA show sheriff’s office staff have raised concerns about out-of-date policies for several years.
In periodic meetings over the last six years, where nonsupervisory staff ask questions of leadership, staff expressed confusion over how to read unofficial updates to standard operating procedures, requested training on new defensive techniques and questioned how to remain safe.
“When and will the (procedures) be updated to reflect current policies?” an unidentified employee asked during a June 2024 meeting. “... A lot of (procedure) is out of date and has not been updated for our view.”
Lieutenant drafted general orders years before Johnson death
The death of George Floyd in 2020 — who was killed in Minneapolis after now-former police officer Derek Chauvin put a knee on Floyd’s neck — sparked racial justice protests across the U.S. and prompted many law enforcement agencies to revise their restraint policies.
In 2020, Lt. Robert Kelley — who no longer works for the sheriff’s office — was assigned by command staff to create general orders for Tarrant County governing employee conduct. Kelley declined to comment when reached by the Report and KERA.
The draft, shared with department leaders in 2021, outlines how Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office employees should handle a variety of situations, including use of force, restraints and medical considerations for people in custody.
In the use-of-force chapter, the general orders explicitly state any employees who observe another law enforcement officer using force must intervene if the force is not objectively reasonable and they have an opportunity to prevent harm.
In the case of Johnson’s death, a lieutenant present while Johnson was being restrained filmed the incident and did not intercede. Waybourn has previously said the lieutenant, Joel Garcia — who is now facing murder charges — was fired in part because he did not stop the use of force. Current standard operating procedures for use of force in the jail reviewed by the Report and KERA do not explicitly state the duty to intervene.
When Johnson’s family found out that there were drafted general orders that were never implemented, it was disappointing, Washington said.
“You would think with an incident as large as the George Floyd case, that every department would have implemented some type of general orders that would have directed their employees how to behave or react in a similar situation,” Washington said.
Alex del Carmen is the associate dean of the Tarleton State University School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Public Administration. Use-of-force policies should be reviewed by leadership at least once a year, and other policies should be reviewed at least once every two years, del Carmen said by email.
He added that implementing general orders is extremely beneficial because they provide consistency across all divisions in an organization.
“They ensure that all personnel are held to the same standards and procedures,” he said.
Clear duty-to-intervene procedures could have changed the outcome of Johnson’s restraint, del Carmen said, but he cautioned that it would work only if detention officers consistently followed the policy. He added that having consistent general orders ensures equal treatment of all personnel when an incident occurs.
Attorney Reagan Wynn, the lead counsel representing Garcia in the criminal case against him, said in an emailed statement that his legal team is conducting an independent investigation into what policies were in place that might have directed his client’s actions leading up to Johnson’s death.
“We anticipate evidence concerning the applicable General Orders, or lack thereof, will ultimately be presented to the Tarrant County jurors who will decide if the State can prove beyond a reasonable doubt (Garcia) knowingly murdered Mr. Johnson,” Wynn said.
Wynn added that they are confident the jury will find Garcia not criminally responsible for Johnson’s death.
The general orders draft also outlines a use-of-force continuum, or step-by-step procedure, for sheriff’s office employees to use when facing a scenario that may require force. The continuum begins with deputy presence, then verbal direction. If neither works, employees are supposed to move on to hands-on interventions, beginning with pushing or pulling gently.
From there, an employee may use pepper spray, a taser and then less-lethal projectiles, including pepper balls. Only after an employee works their way through the continuum can they begin more physical interventions, like shoulder pins and neck restraints, which the draft orders say should be restricted to instances where an employee’s life could be endangered.
In the use-of-force section, the drafted 2021 general orders specify that employees must request medical assistance as soon as it’s safe to do so in any use-of-force incident and monitor a person’s airway throughout the use of force.
In the current standard operating procedures governing use of force in the jail, a similar continuum is outlined. However, the use-of-force policy does not include specific medical considerations for after employees use force, except for the use of pepper spray or restraint chairs. A separate operating policy governing care of inmates provides further instructions on medical care.
Medical response in the jail has been criticized in the case of Johnson’s death, which the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled was caused by mechanical and chemical asphyxia.
When asked why the drafted general orders were not implemented, the sheriff’s office said Kelley did not complete the project before he left the office. Kelley submitted the draft in 2021 and left the office after that year.
“General orders may be implemented in the future, as we strive to continue to improve policy and processes,” the office said in the statement. “At this time, TCSO is heavily mandated by (standard operating procedures), rules, and regulations.”
The sheriff’s office added that if general orders were implemented, it would be in addition to the existing procedures rather than replacing them.
Emily Nava
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KERA
Sheriff declines to release, discuss policies
The standard operating procedures have faced scrutiny from county officials, who have called for the policies to be made public. Simmons, a Democrat, requested a briefing by the sheriff’s office on its standard operating procedures and an explanation on the process for amending and changing the policy at an Aug. 6 Commissioners Court meeting.
However, Waybourn was not present at the meeting and declined to brief commissioners on his office’s procedures.
It was not the first time Waybourn has skipped a sheriff's office briefing. The sheriff has previously declined to brief commissioners on other department incidents, including the in-custody deaths of Johnson at a May 7 meeting and Chasity Corday Bonner at a June 4 meeting.
In a statement read by County Administrator Chandler Merritt on Aug. 6, Waybourn said the sheriff’s office follows state guidelines along with county policies. He added that a public discussion about the sheriff's office policies would not be productive.
Simmons said that she submitted an open records request for the standard operating procedures, known internally as SOPs, in July, but has not received them.
"I believe that requesting something as simple as the sheriff's department’s SOPs for how this sheriff's office operates is very appropriate for me in this role as county commissioner," she said.
Commissioner Roy Brooks, also a Democrat, spoke in favor of transparency when it came to sheriff's office policies during the August meeting.
"We deserve, as a body, the right to be briefed on what they are, and I don't think that the sheriff should be deciding what this board, what we can hear and what we can't," Brooks said.
KERA requested a copy of the office's use-of-force policy in June. Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells appealed to the Texas attorney general, arguing that the documents should be withheld from the public because they relate to confidential security protocols in the jail.
The attorney general’s office has not yet ruled on whether the records should be available to the public. KERA and the Report later obtained a copy of the use-of-force policy and restraint procedures through another source. The procedures had not been updated in more than a decade.
Commissioner Manny Ramirez, a Republican, sided with Simmons and Brooks at the Aug. 6 meeting and said industry-wide law enforcement general orders and certain procedures are publicly available online.
"I do think in this instance, radical transparency is probably the best policy," Ramirez, a former Fort Worth police officer and union head, said. "So, I would love to see the general orders published."
Full Johnson video, use-of-force policies remain out of public eye
During the Aug. 6 meeting, Johnson’s sister, Janell, said the sheriff office’s outdated policies were the reason why the full video showing her brother’s death will not be released.
“That 15-minute tape shows you exactly what the sheriff represents,” she said. “The torture of my brother shows you the 15-year policy that everybody has been voted on and everybody has agreed on.”
Last month, Attorney General Ken Paxton allowed the Tarrant County Sheriff’s office to withhold the full video showing what happened to Johnson. The ruling, dated July 15 but made public July 31, came before Washington announced a lawsuit against the county — specifically the sheriff's office — and a group of detention officers.
Washington previously told KERA that the family was not surprised by Paxton’s decision.
“Sheriff Waybourn, [John Peter Smith Hospital] and other Tarrant County officials do not want the full video released because it will expose how Anthony Johnson Jr. was treated in such an inhumane manner shortly before and after his death,” Washington said in a statement.
He added that the video would show how people in custody are treated and “highlight the culture” of the Tarrant County Jail.
Fort Worth resident Mark Kirkland, bishop at Greater St. Mark Church, told commissioners Aug. 6 that he was not surprised by Waybourn’s absence.
"I wouldn't come either if I could get any- and everything I wanted from you people," he said during the public comment segment. "You keep writing him checks the way you write him checks, I wouldn't be accountable either. I wouldn't come in, sit here and hold my feet to the fire if I could get everything that I wanted with zero accountability."
Tarrant County has paid at least $2.8 million in settlements over jail lawsuits in recent years, with $2.2 million of that total paid out in the last 11 months.
The largest settlement in the county's history — $1.2 million — was approved May 21 for the death of Chasity Congious' daughter, Zenorah. Congious gave birth to Zenorah alone in her county jail cell in 2020.
Craig, the criminal justice professor, said law enforcement culture and policy go hand-in-hand.
She was a co-investigator for a public policy study for policing in Florida in 2021 that looked at law enforcement agencies’ policies in relation to use of force. During that project, Craig said obtaining policies for more than 60 agencies was a long process that took time and money.
Based on her research experience, Craig said, she could not think of a particular law enforcement agency that was the model for transparency. She added that it could be due to the fact that transparency was not demanded as much as it is now.
“It just seems counterintuitive,” Craig said. “If you are truly committed to having the community think that you are there protecting them and looking out for their best interests, why wouldn't you want them to know what you're doing to make everybody safe?”
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Emily Wolf is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at emily.wolf@fortworthreport.org or@_wolfemily
