Look out, Houston, Lubbock is coming for your crown. According to recent TxDOT data, Lubbock County has officially surpassed massive metropolitan areas like Dallas, Travis, and Harris counties in fatal crashes per 100,000 people. Apparently, local motorists have collectively decided that stop signs are merely decorative and speed limits are just a baseline suggestion. Sheriff Kelly Rowe is deeply frustrated by the carnage, but he’s currently playing a losing game of law enforcement musical chairs. The county is short 17 positions because a deputy’s starting salary sits at a meager $56,800, while the Lubbock Police Department dangles $70,000 in front of new cadets. Naturally, deputies are fleeing to LPD, Wolfforth, and federal agencies faster than a commuter blowing through a red light outside Shallowater.
It gets better. The county jail is currently “teetering” on the edge of failing its state compliance inspection because a leaky roof has destroyed the building’s fire panels and internal electronics. Meanwhile, District Attorney Sunshine Stanek is bleeding prosecutors to higher-paying jobs, causing a case backlog so severe that the county is actively paying neighboring jurisdictions to house 75 of our own overflowing inmates. When Sheriff Rowe suggested asking voters to fund public safety, Precinct 2 Commissioner Jason Corley essentially rolled his eyes, noting that Rowe has made the same complaint for eight years straight. Corley’s visionary, cost-cutting solution? The sheriff’s office should just do less patrolling because the city keeps annexing land anyway. Who needs traffic enforcement when you can just wait for the city limits to swallow the problem?
County Judge Curtis Parrish also chimed in to suggest tougher prosecution for deadly drivers, a bold stance that pairs beautifully with the reality of a recent local case where a man avoided jail time entirely after fleeing a fatal crash at Buffalo Springs. But with the county currently staring down a terrifying $40 million mismatch between early budget requests and total revenue, commissioners are far too busy bickering to fix the structural collapse of local government. If the total lack of law enforcement doesn’t slow down the speeding traffic on our outer loops, we can always just pray the potholes do it for us.
At this rate, if you happen to get T-boned by a distracted driver on FM 179, you can take comfort in knowing that the deputy who didn’t stop them is happily making bank at LPD, the prosecutor who won’t try the case has left for the private sector, and the jail where the suspect won’t go has a lovely indoor waterfall every time it rains.
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