This 100% true in the county I live in here in east TX, the PD is pretty decent, but the sheriff and his chief deputy are nothing but thugs and should’ve been sent to prison years ago. No one really wants the job, so the thugs just keep getting reelected.I can speak from my experiences only. I've said this before many times... The bad cops worst enemies are the good cops. It's not the guys on the street that are usually the problem. It's the leadership. There are a variety of reasons leadership fails to remove the bad cops, even when they're made aware of them by the good cops.
Bureaucrats and administrators are the real culprits in my experience. When they fail in their responsibilities it does several things: two of the biggies are It emboldens the bad cops and it infuriates and demoralizes the good cops.