Smith County Sheriff’s Lt. Aimee Crockett was honored in Commissioners Court Tuesday for receiving the 2024 Making a Difference Award from the Texas Association of Counties.
Lt. Crockett has been the training lieutenant over the Jail Training Division and has overseen the Field Training Officer Program since joining Smith County in January 2023.
“I am so proud of our agency and the officers who work there,” she said. “I’m very, very grateful for this award and my relationship with the Texas Association of Counties.”
Kenny Lemons, who is a retired sheriff and serves as a law enforcement consultant for TAC’s Risk Management Pool, presented her with the award exhibiting leadership in promoting loss prevention efforts in the county, and resulting in the reduction of claims and claims costs. Candidates for the award are not only those responsible for safety efforts alone but also anyone, who, through dedication or creativity, has positively affected risk management efforts within the county.
Lemons said Lt. Crockett has used her many years of experience in her role leading the Jail Training Division. She is “certainly making a difference,” he added.
Lt. Crockett’s vast experience during her more than 30 years working in county corrections makes her an invaluable asset to Smith County.
She began her career at the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, where she worked in all facets of the detention bureau, the identification/fingerprint section and she spent a decade in the training academy working with the Basic County Corrections Course.
Lt. Crockett has been instrumental in making the Sheriff’s Office new Detention Officer Program a success. The program received the 2024 Best Practices Award from TAC.
After years of struggling with recruiting and retention in staffing detention officers, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office teamed up with the Tyler ISD Career and Technology Center to offer a Basic County Corrections Course to students in high school. The first of its kind in Texas, Smith County has detention officers working full-time while taking college courses after graduating high school. The Sheriff’s Office has also started a jail academy in-house to help certify jailers at a lower cost and quicker rate than waiting on colleges to offer the training. These new programs have already helped reduce the number of detention officer vacancies, which have been well over 20 for the past several years, to three currently.
After her time in Dallas, Lt. Corckett joined the Correctional Management Institute of Texas at Sam Houston State University as a project coordinator. She is a graduate of the National Jail Leadership Command Academy and facilitated the NJLCA program while at Sam Houston. She also had the opportunity to coordinate the Jail Administration Management and Operations course and the Annual Mental Health Conference.
Lt. Crockett is a lifetime member of the Texas Jail Association, currently serving in the position of treasurer, and is also a member of the American Jail Association. She is a trainer and presenter for CMIT, TJA, AJA and has attended NCIC training for trainers on Direct Supervision.
“Lt. Crockett has over 30 years of experience in the field of corrections and has been a great asset to the Sheriff’s Office,” Chief Deputy Gary Pinkerton said in his nomination letter for the award. Lt. Crockett was very instrumental in revamping our Jail Training Officers Program. She is the instructor for the 120-hour Basic County Corrections Officer Course. Lt. Crockett also assisted with the new High School to Jailer Program.”
Lt. Crockett is also responsible for coordinating with the Texas Association of Counties, to provide Suicide Prevent training to all detention personnel, and the Below 100 Training class to all divisions in the Sheriff’s Office. Lt. Crockett has a wealth of knowledge and experience that she shares with officers entering the law enforcement and corrections career, Pinkerton said.
