Margo Frasier is an American lawyer and former sheriff. She was sheriff of Travis County, Texas (which includes the city of Austin) from 1997 through 2004.

Career

Frasier, a lawyer,[1] received a J.D. from the Florida State University College of Law.[2]

She joined the Travis County Sheriff's Office as a sheriff's deputy,[3] and eventually became the office's first female lieutenant and the first female captain.[4] She was subsequently elected to two four-year terms as sheriff of Travis County,[4] serving from 1997 through 2004.[3] The sheriff's office had some 1,200 employees at the time of Fraiser's tenure.[5] Fraiser, a Democrat, was the first woman and the first openly gay person in that post.[4] She was also the first gay or lesbian person elected sheriff in the United States.[6]

During her tenure, Fraiser modernized the sheriff's office through greater use of technology and dealt with overcrowding and code violations at the county jail.[4] During her tenure, the sheriff's office put cameras and computers in patrol cars for the first time.[7] After leaving the sheriff's office, Fraiser became a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.[2] She later returned to Austin to become a consultant at a firm that advises law enforcement agencies.[8] Fraiser also testified as an expert witness in court cases.[3]

In January 2011, Fraiser became police monitor for the City of Austin.[1] She was the fourth person to hold this post.[8] As police monitor, Frasier had oversight over citizen complaints against the Austin Police Department.[1] She retired from the Office of Police Monitor in January 2017,[8] and later that year was appointed by U.S. District Judge Lance Africk to serve as the lead monitor overseeing the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office under the terms of a 2013 settlement of a case between the Orleans sheriff's offices and jail inmates over poor conditions at the Orleans Parish Prison.[9]

Personal life

Fraiser has a domestic partner and a daughter.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jordan Smith, Frasier Named New Police Monitor, Austin Chronicle (December 29, 2010).
  2. 1 2 Wells Dunbar, The Daily Hustle: 12/6/10: Meet Police Monitor candidates tomorrow, Austin Chronicle (December 6, 2010).
  3. 1 2 3 Sheriff had no policy to curb bias, expert witness says, Times-News (August 14, 2004).
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Andy Sere, Sheriff Margo Frasier leaves a respected legacy for herself, Daily Texas (January 29, 2004).
  5. ↑ Erik Meers, Good Cop, Gay Cop, The Advocate, March 3, 1998.
  6. ↑ Gay and Lesbian Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook (eds. Raymond A. Smith & Donald P. Haider-Markel: ABC-CLIO, 2002), p. 312.
  7. ↑ Frasier Looks Back Her Tenure As Sheriff, KXAN (November 1, 2004).
  8. 1 2 3 Philip Jankowski, Austin Police Monitor Margo Frasier to retire, Austin American-Statesman (December 15, 2017).
  9. ↑ Matt Sledge, Federal judge replaces lead New Orleans jail monitor in personnel switch during grim period, New Orleans Advocate (November 17, 2017).
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