WacoTrib.com
Q&A with Texas House candidate Dennis Wilson: Longtime lawman leads Texas in mental-health solutions
Retired Limestone County Sheriff Dennis Wilson, 66, is one of two Republican candidates competing in the March 1 primary election to serve as state representative of newly drawn Texas House District 13. The Groesbeck native touts 46 years in law enforcement, including presidency of the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas and his 2013 appointment by Gov. Rick Perry to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. More recently, Wilson has led the Texas Joint Committee on Access and Forensic Services, a group of advocates, law enforcement representatives and policy experts tasked with addressing colossal mental-health needs in Texas by pressing state leadership to provide more mental-health beds statewide rather than abandoning troubled individuals in need of treatment in county jail cells. He also serves on the Heart of Texas Region Mental Health Mental Retardation Center Board of Directors, helping steer development of an ambitious new mental-health crisis facility on a six-acre Southwest Waco site serving McLennan, Bosque, Falls, Freestone, Hill and Limestone counties.