{"id":360065,"date":"2025-11-06T15:35:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/360065\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T15:35:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T15:35:22","slug":"bexar-county-sheriff-adds-staff-forms-missing-persons-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/360065\/","title":{"rendered":"Bexar County sheriff adds staff, forms missing persons unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office is restructuring to keep pace with the growing number of missing person cases each year. Local advocates hope the dedicated missing persons unit <\/strong>could ease strain on investigators and families navigating an often overwhelmed system.<\/p>\n

In January, there was one detective responsible for 600 open missing persons cases<\/a>. Now there are two deputies tasked with handling these investigations, but they had been working under the homicide and violent crimes divisions.<\/p>\n

The new structure, funded by $370,000 in the county\u2019s latest budget<\/a>, adds a dedicated investigator and a clerk to support missing persons investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t really a standalone unit, but these folks were carved off and told, \u2018You guys are our designated missing-persons people.\u2019 They\u2019re good at what they do,\u201d Sheriff Javier Salazar said.\u00a0 \u201cBut the workload has just increased dramatically, having an investigator and a civilian clerk to help them with the day-to-day stuff, is gonna dramatically raise our game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salazar said the added investigator will focus on filing cases that cross into criminal territory \u2014 such as neglect, trafficking or homicide \u2014 while the deputies will <\/strong>continue conducting searches in the field, coordinating mounted patrol, drone or air support.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The clerk, he said, will serve as \u201ctraffic control,\u201d sorting cases, coordinating with families and ensuring Amber or Silver alerts are updated quickly. <\/p>\n

These are public alerts sent directly to mobile phones, highway message boards and broadcast outlets when cases meet certain criteria \u2014 for example, when a child or senior citizen is missing and believed to be in danger.<\/p>\n

\"\"A couple reads a missing persons flyer, shared with them by volunteers with Search and Support San Antonio, about Jeanie Chavez at Southside Lions Park on Sep. 16, 2024. Credit: Bria Woods \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Salazar hopes the expansion will have an impact in time sensitive situations such as with missing children, which make up roughly 77% of the missing persons cases in the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoubling the size of a unit like this is going to increase our chances of getting closure in these cases,\u201d he said. \u201c If we can find that person in a matter of hours versus a matter of days, when there\u2019s a missing child involved, two days is an eternity. A lot of bad things can happen to that child in two days.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salazar said his office now receives three to four new missing children reports every single night \u2014 a trend he and his chiefs have tracked personally for the last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s not going anywhere anytime soon. It\u2019s gonna continue to rise. I was curious because I see our social media and\u00a0 we\u2019re handling these missing kids cases all the time,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cSo I told my staff every time we have a missing child or runaway, start sending us an executive email on it. \u2029And we get three or four of those every single night, man. It\u2019s blowing up on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new positions are expected to be filled within the next two months. Salazar said the investigator will likely be promoted internally from another department after a hiring push for deputies is completed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unit could be eight people deep and they\u2019d still be busy as can be,\u201d he said. \u201c We do what we can with the allotted budget with that being said, they\u2019re going to be busy as can be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Case Intake Manager Lori Wittmeyer with Search and Support San Antonio<\/a> welcomed the additional resources but says that the scope of the problem extends beyond any one agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The nonprofit provides free search, rescue, discovery and recovery services to those who are missing their loved ones. They work closely with law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Missing in San Antonio<\/strong> was a multi-part reporting series by the San Antonio Report on people who go missing and the people who work to find them. <\/p>\n

Read the first story that reveals just how many go missing\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a follow up story here<\/a>, we share the stories of eight local missing persons cases.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a guide<\/a> on what to do if a loved one goes missing. <\/p>\n

In the final story here<\/a>, we write about a possible solution that\u2019s working in Houston to help keep track of older people with dementia.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven before this unit was added, Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office was excellent in dealing with missing people, and they had an excellent track record,\u201c said Wittmeyer. \u201dThis will just bring more focus to those missing people. Anytime they add staff to help combat this problem, it\u2019s a great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mostly-volunteer group often serves as an intermediary between families and police, helping verify tips or distribute flyers when families are hesitant to approach law enforcement directly. \u201cSometimes they don\u2019t feel comfortable turning information over to police because they don\u2019t want to get somebody in trouble,\u201d Wittmeyer said. \u201cThat\u2019s where we come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the new structure may improve communication for families, but acknowledged that the challenge of scale remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if there are three or four new people added, they\u2019re still at a disadvantage because of the number of cases,\u201d Wittmeyer said. \u201cIt\u2019s frightening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year a San Antonio Report investigation<\/a> found that roughly nine people are reported missing every day in San Antonio, underscoring the challenges facing local agencies and families seeking answers.<\/p>\n

The report<\/a> highlighted long hours, limited staff and the emotional toll on detectives handling hundreds of open cases at once.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salazar said measuring outcomes will be key to securing more funding and resources in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that we do we are constantly tracking metrics so when budget comes around, we can demonstrate, \u2018Here\u2019s what we did with four people. If we had an additional two, here\u2019s what we think we could do,\u201d\u00a0 he said. \u201c We have to be able to demonstrate, if you give us more, here\u2019s what those metric could look like.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office is restructuring to keep pace with the growing number of missing person cases…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":360066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,24545,7288,175092,93259,8174,93260,100681,175093,175094,175095,8324,175096,7202,7203,175097,358,3187,7815,7593,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,20705],"class_list":{"0":"post-360065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bcso","10":"tag-bexar-county","11":"tag-bexar-county-missing-persons","12":"tag-bexar-county-sheriff","13":"tag-bexar-county-sheriffs-office","14":"tag-county-budget","15":"tag-javier-salazar","16":"tag-lori-wittmeyer","17":"tag-missing-in-san-antonio","18":"tag-missing-kids-in-san-antonio","19":"tag-missing-persons","20":"tag-missing-persons-detectives","21":"tag-san-antonio","22":"tag-sanantonio","23":"tag-search-and-support-san-antonio","24":"tag-texas","25":"tag-tx","26":"tag-typedaily","27":"tag-typefeature","28":"tag-united-states","29":"tag-united-states-of-america","30":"tag-unitedstates","31":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","32":"tag-us","33":"tag-usa","34":"tag-wc-750-1000"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}