Ralph Gonzales was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He and his wife have four adult children and three dogs.
Ralph entered the Houston Police Department at the age of 19. He served 25 years with HPD in various positions. After eight years, he was promoted to Sergeant of Police, where he went on to serve as supervisor for 17 years in many areas, including Crime Analysis, Media Relations, Motorcycle Division, Internal Affairs, and Street Level Narcotics. For several years he held the position of Supervisor of the Public Information Office under Police Chief Elizabeth Watson.
In 1989 he attended the FBI National Academy. There, at the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy’s 159th Session, he attended numerous leadership and management courses at the FBI Academy headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.
After leaving the Houston Police Department he was recruited to work as an Investigator with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office where he was assigned to the Special Crimes Bureau dealing with various white collar crimes.
After five years with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, he was recruited to work with the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District where he served as Assistant Director of Security and was later selected as the Director of Campus Safety. During those 16 years of service he was directly responsible for the supervision of safety and security personnel of the third largest school district in the State of Texas.
After being promoted to Director of Campus Safety in 2011, Ralph developed and designed the district’s emergency operations response plans for all campuses. He was also instrumental in developing and designing a premier radio communications system for Cy-Fair I.S.D. which is considered to be one of the most advanced systems of any school district in the nation.
In 2015, Ralph was asked to return to law enforcement by then-Sheriff Ron Hickman of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. While at HCSO, he served as the Senior Manager of Media Relations for the third-largest sheriff’s office in the nation, supervising a staff of eight, including digital media, social media, spokespersons, designers, and public records personnel.
While at the Sheriff’s office, Ralph supervised the handling of the numerous media crises involving the murder of Deputy Darren Goforth. Deputy Goforth’s death received national attention which required negotiating requests from all major national news outlets along with various news organizations from around the world. During Ralph’s tenure at the HCSO, many other major newsworthy events also occurred that required direct and indirect managing of news media requests with written responses and interviews on a daily basis.
Ralph Gonzales has dedicated 48 years of service to his community. He has been a leader, teacher, and mentor to so many people, helping them become better leaders and better employees.
R Gonzales Consulting 