Chief Deputy Dickey Back on Job After Health Scare
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – It wasn’t the Christmas Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Roger Dickey had planned at all. Dickey suffered a stroke and was transported to a Houston hospital to recover. The Messenger noted the story at the time and asked our readers to pray for a speedy recovery. Those prayers seemed to have worked as The Messenger caught up with Dickey this week back on the job – and probably still doing more than he should.
Dickey, a native of Grapeland, has been a public servant most of his life. He was a fireman and a county commissioner before taking the role of Chief Deputy two years ago at the request of then newly-elected Houston County Sheriff Randy Hargrove. Dickey says his 32 years in law enforcement have not changed his position that a heart to serve the public is what makes him still love the job.
“It makes me feel good to be able to help somebody,” Dickey said. “We get to interact with people on their worst day, a lot of times. Almost 32 years later, it still makes me feel good to be able to help somebody. But if we don’t have a servant’s heart, it needs to be a calling. You need to get to a point where you get to go to work instead of have to go to work.”
Dickey was signing payroll papers and ran out to deal with another issue before finding time to speak to The Messenger before a trip with one inmate to the Houston area and an early morning run to Tyler the next morning. He said he was working on job descriptions for the department and said he always adds the phrase, “…and other duties as may be assigned.”
Smaller sheriff’s departments mean everyone must wear several hats and Dickey certainly does that, although the official duties of a Chief Deputy are fairly straightforward.
“I serve every function of this office in the sheriff’s absence. I oversee the day to day operations. Usually I’m the first contact for anybody who’s got a problem so I get to put a lot of fires out,” Dickey explained. “The part of this job that I’ve disliked the most is that I’m tasked with internal affairs investigations. And it’s harder being a smaller agency because we are like family. Everybody knows everybody and I don’t want to have to dish out the discipline if I don’t have to. That’s one of the tasks we sometimes have to do. But our main job is to help people.”
Our local sheriff’s department hired two new deputies over the summer and another one when Sgt. Mike McCreight won the election to become Justice of the Peace. One of the parts of the job Dickey loves most is training the new recruits and teaching ethics at the jail.
“When you first get out of the academy, you’re nine-feet tall and bulletproof,” Dickey laughed. “It doesn’t take you long to realize that is not true! It’s a whole lot easier if I can talk somebody into handcuffs. When you wake up in the morning, your liability starts. When you walk out the door, you are always on camera. It doesn’t bother you if your character is right and you’re doing the right thing.”
When it comes to suspects, Dickey knows everyone is innocent until proven guilty. He believes relationships are the key to successful law enforcement.
“I’m going to treat them with respect. In my opinion, it’s all about community policing and simply building relationships,” Dickey said. He tells new trainees, “Let’s go to the location and the area where you get the most calls. When you’re not on a call, and you see somebody out on the side of the street, stop, ‘shoot the bull’, and get to know them.”
Dickey has certainly seen a lot of changes in Houston County over the years. He said the recent increase in border crossings from Mexico have brought a number of consequences – some unexpected. The rising number of immigrants presents a problem, first because not all are economic immigrants and some come to do bad things. Secondly, many of the recent immigrants are not Mexican nationals at all but hail from many different places. Dickey said methamphetamine production in the county actually seems to be down, since the chaos at the border brings so much “product” in at cheaper prices that many locals have given up producing the stuff. He said crime seems lower because the county has a lower population, but per capita – the crime can be as bad as in any big city.
Dickey thanked the people of Houston County, among them our readers for the prayers extended to him to get better. He said he felt the support.
“As far as the prayers go, I can promise you, you can physically feel the prayer and they work. People can believe that or not. The least we can do for someone is pray for them and the most we can do for somebody is pray for them. So I appreciate all those prayers. And I cherish them,” Dickey said.
Dickey has shown no long-term effects from his stroke and didn’t let the health scare keep him down – taking advantage of a mistake by hospital staff in the ICU.
“They messed up and brought a walker in my room,” Dickey said smiling. “So every opportunity I got out and I was the only one moving around so they would downgrade me. I was there one more day and they cut me loose. So I got released and came home!”
Asked if Dickey would slow things down now after his health scare, he promised he would watch what he eats, take the pills the doctors prescribed and try and get more sleep. As far as taking it a little easier on the job?
“Probably not,” Dickey concluded.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
