Sean Teare defeated the sitting Harris County District Attorney, Kim Ogg, in the March 2024 Democratic primary.
After the victory, many assumed he would win the November contest against his Republican opponent, Dan Simmons.
Teare, a former prosecutor in Ogg’s office, did win last November’s race, and with it, the responsibilities of the juggling act that is being the “top cop” in a county that’s predominantly pro-police reform.
So, just who is Teare, and what would possess him to seek a position that by its very public nature invites scrutiny and criticism from all sides?
Turns out, the answer is quite personal.
Motivation
“When I was 15 years old, I walked up the steps of the old 1301 Franklin jail to bail my mom out for a felony PCS charge,” Teare shared with the Defender. “I watched her subsequently go onto the streets, and eventually that addiction killed her.
“Watching her try to navigate the criminal justice system really inspired me to get in here and try to be a voice of change and a voice of competence inside this building.”
Teare is a firm believer in the power of affecting meaningful change from the inside, “if you’re doing it the right way,” which is his overall goal.
Priorities
More specifically, Teare seeks to attack what he labels the root causes of crime.
“We have in the first hundred days… created for the very first time a mental health and diversions bureau that is actively going out and seeking people caught up in the system,” said Teare, “who should be somewhere else, whether that’s learning a trade or getting the mental health treatment they need, or the treatment to tackle their substance abuse issues in a meaningful way.
“We’re identifying them, whether they’re in the Harris County Jail or outside and putting them on a different path. I think that is the number one way to really begin to approach equality and justice for all.”
Teare also mentioned restoring the community’s trust in the DA’s office by being a resource to officers and letting them know what his office can and can’t accept as charges.
“[This] is going to minimize the aggressive interactions between law enforcement and the community,” shared Teare.
Teare also believes the way his office decides who it should be going after in a meaningful prosecution way and who it can give second chances to (via apprenticeship, trade programs, other types of diversions or mental health treatment) will engender more trust.
One sign of the direction Teare is taking the Harris County DA’s office is his move to make the Domestic Violence Bureau a top priority, “making sure that all of the survivors of domestic violence are treated with the same trauma-informed compassion and competence they deserve.”
“We are here for every survivor of domestic violence,” said Lauren Byrne, the DA’s chief of staff, who works alongside Chief of the Domestic Violence Bureau Mary McFaden. “If there are people who are suffering in our community, it is our job to protect them.”
Message from election victories
Teare is clear on what his two election victories in 2024 say about what area voters expect.
“It says that Harris County wants to go in the direction that we thought we were going to go in 2016, one of competency, one of empathetic prosecution and one where justice is equal across the board regardless of the neighborhood you live in, regardless of your socioeconomic status, regardless of anything other than what is the right thing to do in every case,” stated Teare.
Cash bail
During her 2016 campaign, Ogg was a vocal critic of the cash bail system, describing it as a “tool to oppress the poor.” She then pledged to support reforms. However, once elected, Ogg publicly criticized the misdemeanor bail reform implemented in Harris County following a federal court ruling that found the county’s bail practices unconstitutional. In public statements, Ogg often linked cash bail reform to increased crime, a claim disputed by some independent monitors.
While on the campaign trail and now in office, Teare views cash bail as problematic.
“I think that cash bail is an antiquated way to keep people in custody or not, full stop. When you say whether or not someone should be released before they’re convicted, basing that on what’s in their bank account is just ridiculous. It goes back to indentured servitude and debtor’s prisons of the 1600s,” said Teare.
Qualified immunity
When asked about his stance on the call to abolish “qualified immunity,” Teare admitted criminal justice reform was needed locally and nationally.
“The Harris County Jail is the largest mental health provider in the state of Texas. The Harris County Jail has more people being treated for mental health issues right now than we have capacity of beds for mental health in the state of Texas,” said Teare, pointing out that real criminal justice reform must start with conversations about mental health.
However, he had little to say about qualified immunity.
“Quite frankly, that is above my pay grade. That’s something that people smarter than me, people who have had different life experiences than me, need to really voice and determine,” said Teare. “I’ve never patrolled the streets. I’ve also never been a member of a marginalized community that has been violated by law enforcement. I can opine on a lot of things, but I don’t think it’s meaningful or helpful for me to opine on that.”
Change needed
Though Teare seeks to institute changes for the better, attorney Dion Craig believes the job is bigger than any individual.
“The DA’s office has a high turnover rate, and they are having a hard time retaining quality attorneys,” said Craig. “This has implications for the justice system.
“Inexperienced prosecutors are not able to properly analyze cases to come up with appropriate outcomes, which may include dismissals or reductions. Furthermore, it undermines the faith that the community has in the justice system.”
Legacy
Still, Teare presses on toward his goals. And when asked what he wants people to say about his tenure as DA when his time is over, Teare said, “That I was part of the movement that changed the way that people view the district attorney’s office in Harris County; that I reimagined what criminal justice is in the state of Texas.”
DN Video: Learn about Teare’s balancing act between police and community, and more.
