Or did Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner hire a frustrated patrolman?
Art Acevedo, Austin’s former police chief, is now the new police chief in Houston. Before he became Austin’s chief, Acevedo was a California Highway Patrol officer, rising through the ranks to division chief.
During his nearly 10 year tenure as Austin’s chief, Acevedo was credited for strengthening community ties, but he was criticized for using Twitter to defend police officers. But a poll earlier this year by the Austin Police Association showed that 52 percent of officers thought morale within the department was poor and 42 percent of officers said they didn't think Acevedo could effectively lead the department in the future.
Acevedo was also known for frequent ride-alongs with his patrol officers.
Despite all the praise heaped on him by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Acevedo left a DNA lab at Austin PD which, according to DPS, was staffed by analysts, 2/3 of which were so incompetent that they were not retrainable. And according to the Austin American-Statesman, Acevedo put his resources into the patrol division while neglecting the other Austin police divisions..
Let’s see now: A former California Highway Patrol officer who, as police chief, likes to ride along with his patrol officers. There’s nothing wrong with that … it probably helped strengthen ties between Austin PD and the community. But you can’t do that at the expense of other police divisions.
It sure looks like Mayor Turner hired a frustrated patrolman.
City officials from Austin, including that city’s new police chief, traveled to Houston to be present at Acevedo’s swearing-in ceremony. Hmmm, I wonder … could the real reason they traveled to Houston be that they were glad to be rid of him?
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