Ceremony Commemorates the Opening of Facility at Denton County Jail

The recipient of a bachelor's degree in public administration from the University of Mississippi, William B. Travis is the former sheriff of Denton County, TX. Elected sheriff in 2013, he served until 2016. During this period, William B. Travis helped to commemorate the opening of a new 364-bed facility at the Denton County Jail.

The new building opened on January 7, 2015 following a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included Travis, as well as Judge Mary Horn, various state representatives, and Denton County commissioners. Citizens in attendance were given tours of the facility following the ceremony in order to get an idea of how it will operate. 

The Sheriff's Office worked for a decade to see the project through to completion. It will directly benefit the Denton County Jail Facility, as it will supply an additional 192 beds. The other beds will be used by medical facilities and those who require special needs housing. Additional renovation projects were planned for older buildings. Speaking at the ceremony, Travis thanked everyone who contributed to the planning and construction of the new facility.

The Oklahoma City Bombing 20th-Anniversary Memorial

With a background spanning the US military and law enforcement, William B. Travis is the former sheriff of Denton County, TX. In 2015 Sheriff William B. Travis was present at memorial ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. 

A Drug Enforcement Administration agent at the time, Travis was among those who assisted in recovery efforts following a terrorist attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The bombing, initiated by Timothy McVeigh, an anti-government militant, killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. 

As Sheriff Travis described it, witnessing so much loss of innocent life, including children, was deeply impactful. Encountering a building that had been cratered, he and fellow rescue workers dug for nearly two days straight. They spent a week recovering every survivor and body possible, as they had promised victims’ families. After that, the planning for funerals commenced, itself a gut-wrenching ordeal.

The 20th-anniversary memorial included a reunion hosted by the Oklahoma Memorial and Museum, bringing together rescue workers, survivors, law enforcement, and the families of victims. At the 20th Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony, attendees held 168 seconds of silence in honor of each of the victims.

Contributions of Former Denton County Sheriff Led to Improvements

A former sheriff with the Denton County Sheriff’s Office in TX, William B. Travis possesses more than two decades of experience in law enforcement. During his time as sheriff, William B. Travis contributed to his TX community in numerous ways, making himself readily available to the county’s residents and visiting school campuses to review safety issues. Additionally, he made significant improvements to the sheriff’s office. 

Many of his achievements involved replacing outdated equipment and addressing antiquated systems. For instance, he updated the office’s dispatch radio system, as the previous one was no longer supported by Motorola and compromised communication between dispatchers and officers in the field. Another critical endeavor included the creation of a centralized records management system for the retention and elimination of records on warrants, unpaid child support, jail time and probation details, and other such documentation. Although this process is a legal requirement for all sheriffs’ offices, Denton County did not have such a system in place. 

Moreover, Sheriff Travis devised strategies to expand the reach of deputies and patrol officers, particularly to areas of Denton County not under municipal police force jurisdiction. To this effect, agreements were made with the Commissioners Court to fund employment for six new deputies. Training, equipment, and supervision for a single individual can cost at least $85,000 annually, which made the addition of the extra personnel a considerable accomplishment. Deputies began patrolling formerly un-policed districts during commutes to or from the Denton County Sheriff’s Office. This increased security in these areas and served as a deterrent against theft.

A Look at the History of P25 Public Safety Radio Systems

The president of X-Ray Business Solutions in Argyle, TX, William B. Travis maintained responsibilities as sheriff in Denton County for three years. During his tenure as sheriff, William B. Travis improved communications in his TX county by deploying a new P25 digital public safety radio system involving the Sheriff’s Office and more than 30 local public safety agencies.

P25, or Project 25, arose from a seminar on advanced technology that took place at the US Department of Commerce in 1989. During this meeting, individuals from all levels of government discussed ways that they could improve communication among public safety entities. They quickly set their sights on digital technology, which was beginning to surpass the capabilities of traditional analog police radio syst ems. In the adoption of digital communications, however, these experts agreed that this technology should meet certain standards going forward. 

Among these standards, the seminar participants agreed, were that digital communications must be interoperable, user-friendly, and capable of taking on new users. Experts believed implementation would take up to five years to accomplish. Contrary to initial expectations, this project has gone on for more than 25 years and moved through two phases.

Phase I addressed key forms of communication, such as voice encoder-decoders (vocoders) and Common Air Interface (CAI) technologies. Phase II has focused on narrow-band platforms, providing standards for public safety officials to move to 6.25-kilohertz channels, creating more spectrum space for expansion.