By TONY GUERRERO
Hays Post
The Ellis County Sheriff's Office logged almost 16,000 calls for service in 2025.
County Sheriff Scott Braun said it was a busy but typical year for the office, which operates across three main areas: patrol, courthouse security and detention.
"We had over 3,500 traffic stops. Those stops may have been warnings or a variety of other things. Our guys are pretty active out on the road trying to keep it safe," he said.
Braun said the detention facility is averaging about 63 inmates, a number that continues to increase. The jail housed about 1,200 inmates last year, most of them male.
The Sheriff’s Office served about 260 warrants in 2025.
Braun said the office logged more than 36,000 miles and about 600 hours transporting inmates across roughly 200 trips.
"We do a lot of transports across the state, meaning we either take them to other facilities for incarceration or we're picking them up. We travel out of our jurisdiction and just got one that came back from Texas the other day," he said.
Braun said deputies also logged about 383,000 patrol miles across the county’s 900 square miles for 2025. The county is covered by a lieutenant, two detectives, three sergeants, and 16 deputies.
The department received more than 3,000 patrol check requests, allowing deputies to monitor homes during vacations, court protection orders or other safety concerns.
You can call the Sheriff's Office to request a patrol check or do so on the Ellis County Sheriff app.
Courthouse security had 18,695 contacts in 2025. Braun added almost 220,000 people have been processed since security operations began in 2016.
Despite the busy year, Braun said the department is well-staffed and not struggling to find applicants, crediting department heads and county commissioners for a competitive pay and benefits plan.
"I have to say we're truly blessed," Braun said. "There are phases that we've gone through where we're having a hard time getting applicants. We are not having that issue."