Dennis Gutierrez set to retire from Hays County Sheriff's Office at end of year

HAYS COUNTY — Lieutenant Dennis Gutierrez, of the Community Services Division at the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, is slated to retire at the end of this month.

As a member of a U.S. Air Force military family, Gutierrez graduated from Aviano American High School in Italy in 1982. Guiterrez received an Air Force ROTC scholarship to join the military. However, after going on a ride along with the San Marcos Police Department one day, he knew that he wanted to go into law enforcement. He was able to opt out of his contract, get an honorable discharge in the Air Force Reserves and change his degree.

After graduating from Southwest Texas State University in 1987, he immediately began working for the HCSO. He has held numerous supervisory positions since 1992. Currently, he is assigned to the Community Services Division and is over the Community Outreach Unit, Government Center Security Unit and the Animal Control Unit, as well as being the primary public information officer and overseeing the Honor Guard detail.

“I’ve been with just this one agency. I fell in love with the area. I’m a military brat, grew up overseas, came for Southwest [Texas State University], loved the area and decided I was going to make this my home,” he said. “I went ahead and got hired on to do an internship during the summer of ‘87. I liked it so well that I immediately joined the Hays County Sheriff's Office and so, it’s been a career ever since.”

Gutierrez said that one person has been his major influence in serving the community: his dad.

“Everybody takes the motto, ‘To Protect and To Serve.’ Everybody has their own meaning for that, but for me, protection was important. But to serve the community was even a greater thing for me. That's been my backbone of my entire career,” he explained. “[It’s] in service with community outreach programs, junior deputy academies, Brown Santa [and] Sunshine Kids — kids with cancer are my big passion right now … Giving back to the community in any way I could through fundraisers and raising money for people in need, that’s just my forte. I owe it all to my dad who, at the time when I was growing up, just instilled that into my brother and my sister about service.”

He has been focused on how to better serve his community for the past 36 years and 33 of those were dedicated to heading up the Hays County Brown Santa program, which provides toys, food and monetary donations to those in need around the holidays. This year, the Sheriff’s Office has hit the record high of serving 525 families.

“This past Saturday, I had two young ladies come up and they said that when they were growing up, they had six sisters and four brothers. [During] Brown Santa 20 years ago, we provided for their family,” Guiterrez said. “They were there to pay it back with their kids and when they told their kids about it, their kids said that they want to continue with Brown Santa as they keep growing up. It's just those types of stories that you know you've reached out to really help people that are struggling and are in need and how much they appreciate it. That makes you want to just work and drive hard to do the best you can for [these families].”

Though Gutierrez will retire from HCSO at the end of December, he will be continuing what he loves to do, but in a different capacity. He is currently a member of the San Marcos Lions Club, but he will be moving up into leadership positions. He will also be helping with Sunshine Kids, a foundation out of Houston that does programs for children with cancer: “It gives them a chance to get away from the hospitals and their treatments and be kids, instead of having to live in this hospital for all their treatments.”

As for the biggest love of his life, he is going to dedicate more time to his family, as he has three young grandchildren.

“It’s going to be all about community and family when I retire,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez credits the support from local businesses, civic organizations and the public to helping make the programs successful. He also thanked the people at the HCSO for their contributions and support along the way.

“Without them, there's absolutely no way that we could have done what we've been doing and doing the good things for the community. It's them that have made it possible. And so, I owe a debt of gratitude to them and also to the sheriffs that I've worked for who allowed me to pursue these types of dreams with giving back to the community and stuff like that. I've been blessed to have such a supportive staff and family because I'm gone a lot of evenings and weekends,” he said.

Following his retirement, Gutierrez said that his responsibilities will be divided among multiple people and the Brown Santa program will most likely be taken over by Hays County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant and Crime Stoppers Executive Director Jeff Jordan.