Galveston County Sheriff Jimmy Fullen is holding a town hall to discuss his departments response to Jeep Weekend.
The meeting is taking place at Jose’s Cantina. The sheriff hopes that tonight’s town hall will be a productive, solution-focused discussion to recap the weekend events and gather valuable feedback for next year.
PREVIOUS: Galveston County officials release arrest numbers following this year’s ‘Jeep Weekend’
Jeep Weekend 2025 certainly appeared and felt different. Business owners, like Keith Zahar, owner of GCM The Big Store—a grocery store, gift shop, and hardware store—seemed to agree.
“It was a ghost town. I’m not going to kid you. There was nobody here,” Zahar said. “There were more law enforcement officers on the highway than there were cars. It really did the trick. We didn’t have, we had almost no trouble.”
Brad Vratias, owner of Stingaree Restaurant, also noticed significant changes.
“There are a lot of folks talking about that are upset because they got a traffic ticket. Don’t break the law,” Vratias said. “But as far as the checkpoints, the inability to get here—waiting two and a half hours to get just past Gilchrist to get to Crystal Beach—I think it’s excessive. I don’t know how you fix it. I fry shrimp for a living.”
Sheriff Fullen stated that Jeep Weekend safety has been on his radar since he was campaigning, especially after a deadly shooting incident in 2024
“The arrests were still up there, but they looked a lot different. In past years, there were more aggravated offenses—sexual assaults, shootings, stabbings, homicides, and a kidnapping. This year, we didn’t have any of that.”
Overall, the sheriff noted that feedback has been mostly positive, but some community members expressed concerns about the increased law enforcement presence and the traffic citations that accompanied it. He is open to both positive and negative feedback and will surely hear more from attendees tonight.
We will update this story after tonight’s meeting.