Hipolito announces bid for sheriff

SAN MARCOS — Ten years ago, Hays County Sheriff Deputy Anthony Hipolito was driving down RM 150 when he turned to his wife and said, “Hey, I’m gonna run for sheriff one day.”

On Tuesday, Feb. 14, Hipolito said he felt nothing but pure humility as he stood next to his family and announced his run for Hays County Sheriff — a dream realized from nearly a decade earlier.

The Hays County native got his start in law enforcement at the Austin Police Department in 1998. Hipolito worked in a variety of different roles at APD, ranging from patrol to internal affairs and public information to undercover work. He was also a sergeant of the organized crime unit. In 2021, he retired from APD after 23 years.

“I was able to do a ton of different things and gain a lot of valuable experience and see how the department is run from the inside,” Hipolito said. “But I’m from Hays County. I moved here in ’85, but it was time for me to move on from Austin.”

In September 2021, he was hired by the Hays County Sheriff’s Office and started out like everybody else, despite his more than 23 years of experience in law enforcement.

“I started out just like a rookie … I worked nights; I did the things that every rookie is supposed to do. I wanted to earn the respect of the troops and deputies that were already here,” Hipolito explained, noting that for the past year, he’s been on the community unit, doing events, parades, fundraisers and more in Hays County.

His respect for the law enforcement community comes from his father, who was a police officer for nearly 30 years at APD.

“I grew up running around the Austin Police Department. I grew up around cops every day, all day,” he said. “Cops are my heroes. They truly, truly are. And it starts with my dad, right? I got to see him get dressed every day; I got to see him go to work every day. I got to hear stories. I got to meet the chief of police. And I love Hays County and deputies and the folks that work at the sheriff’s office are second to none. I think they deserve someone who can come in, be an advocate and let them build the sheriff’s office to make it bigger and better. And I want to work with their vision and combine it with my vision to make this one of the best medium-sized agencies in not only Texas, but in the country.”

So, when he decided to run for sheriff, it was only fitting to run in his home county.

Hipolito’s goals for Hays County, he said, are three-fold: establish a proactive community-focused culture; combine his vision with that of his deputies’ so that he succeeds in recruiting and retention; and, of course, keep Hays County safe.

“As a sheriff, you have many different stakeholders you have to answer to … It’s incumbent on me to establish a culture at the sheriff’s office that makes the officers and deputies actually happy to come to work … so they’re looking forward to some of the work in their proactive community calls … I want to establish a culture that does that so the community benefits, the media benefits and the county as a whole benefits,” Hipolito said.

“I want the office to be something [deputies] are proud of — a place they want to come to work because another thing I’m going to work on is the recruiting and retention aspect. Culture plays 100% into that because we’re our best recruiters … Finally, I want to keep Hays County as safe as it possibly can be. Hays County is a large county and is continuing to grow and with growth … crime stats kind of creep up. But I think that if we continue to work together with the community and other law enforcement agencies throughout Hays County, working together, keeping those lines of communication open and holding each other accountable … we can keep Hays County one of the safest counties to live in.”

Prior to the announcement of his intention to run for sheriff, Hipolito was endorsed by current Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler. This endorsement was meaningful for the deputy, he said.

“I’ve known the Cutler family for many years, and I have a ton of respect for Sheriff Cutler because I know who he is and what he’s about and what he represents,” Hipolito said. “It means more than he’ll ever know.

And it’s not for political purposes. It’s more for me; it’s more personal because I know who he is and I know what he’s about. He’s not perfect and neither am I … He truly encompasses what a police officer or sheriff’s deputy is about. I’ve truly enjoyed knowing him and I look forward to building upon what he’s done and making [HCSO] bigger and making it a better place to work.”

The community is invited to a campaign kick-off event on April 27 at the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood.

For more information, visit the campaign website at www. hipolitoforsheriff.com.