Marian Brown, who had been serving as interim Dallas County Sheriff since Jan. 1, 2018, was sworn-in for her first full term Tuesday.
Brown, who was elected to the position in November and is the county's first black sheriff, had been filling-in for former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez who resigned last year and mounted an unsuccessful bid to unseat Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Brown was sworn-in Tuesday by longtime Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price who talked about the struggles and transitions facing the department as well as the challenge the county sheriff faces of managing not only the 2,100 employees in the department but the state's second largest jail as well.
"She's the right person at the right time. I'm extremely impressed with her. I knew her when she was in Duncanville. Like I said, at the right time, for a time such as this, boy I'm glad she's here," Price said.
During her campaign, Brown said community engagement was a top priority and reiterated that message Tuesday morning.
"I think that what we're going to do is just make sure that we let the community know that we are here for them. That this is not just somthing that is here and it's separate and apart from the community, it's indeed a part of the community and we want to make sure that they know that."
In the year she served as interim sheriff, Brown implemented what she calls the department's core values, defined as integrity, professionalism and accountability, and said the expectations of adhering to those values have trickled down to all staff.
"We said the values were not just things that we put on the wall or a cliched phrase that we use from day-to-day, but we wanted it to be something that we lived, something that we believed and something that we implemented and participated in every day," Brown said. "That is one of the main things I'm excited about because that philosophy has trickled down to our people and they know now that this is what the expectation is and they enjoy making sure taht the community as a whole sees those characteristics in their every day work."
In her role as sheriff, Brown, who grew up in Dallas County and attended Dallas public schools, brings with her over 30 years of law enforcement knowledge and experience
"I have a personal interest in Dallas County and the things that affect our community. I am grateful to have the chance to serve in a leadership role in the place where I grew up and I am excited as we move the Sheriff's Department forward to hail the values that we have charged ourselves with," Brown said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
The Dallas County Sheriff's Department is responsible for all law enforcement activity in the unincorporated area of Dallas County, as well as the Town of Sunnyvale. The sheriff supervises about 2,100 employees and 5,000 inmates at the Dallas County Jail, the second largest jail in the state and ninth largest in the country.
