HENDERSON COUNTY, Texas — Over the past months, there has been an increase in drug arrests by the Henderson County Sheriff's Office.
"It's not the only focus that we have but it was one of the major ones," Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse said. "Trying to let the citizens know, we're doing what we said we were going to do.
Hillhouse says the people of Henderson County elected him to take a hard line on drug crime, a goal he says his department continues to pursue.
"Within the last three months our sheriff's office has made about 75 narcotics-related arrests," Hillhouse said.
According to the Smith County Sheriff's Office, they have made 192 arrests related to drugs like meth, heroin, and cocaine through that same time period.
Based on the population of the two counties, Henderson County gets one arrest per 1,081 people. About 100 more arrests per person than Smith County, where the population is nearly triple that of Henderson County.
Hillhouse says in his experience, curbing drug crimes helps contribute to a safer community as a whole.
"I worked in narcotics investigations for five years and I saw that if you focus on narcotics and narcotics arrests then you can decrease your other crimes," he said. "Your thefts, your burglaries, your assaults, and stuff like that because a lot of times those folks are the ones out there committing those crimes to support their habits."
While Henderson County has not seen a quantifiable decrease in drug crime, Hillhouse says he believes they have been making positive strides.
"I feel like we're stepping to the next level. We're getting bigger weight, which I think is exciting," he said. "Getting bigger weight, bigger amounts off the street is good for everybody and I just want to keep working with the other law enforcement agencies, state federal and local, everywhere we can to just keep going up the ladder."