Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo is inviting officers laid off by defunded police departments throughout the country to join his force telling “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday, “We’re hiring.”
“We’re fortunate we have a mayor and a council … that understands that our community doesn’t want less policing, they don’t want to defund the police, they want better policing and they want good cops,” Acevedo said.
He made the comments amid a growing push across the country to defund or dismantle police departments, following the death of George Floyd in police custody.
“When you see that it’s challenging to actually go out and get folks to join the policing ranks today, if good officers want to come here and they want to serve this great city, we’re hiring,” Acevedo said. “We have 400 positions thanks to our mayor and council and we’re looking forward to finding good people.”
As local governments in other parts of the country, like Austin, Texas, have considered cutting budgets and defunding departments to reform police, Acevedo noted Houston’s decision to hire. He wants to implement a new program making it easier for out-of-state officers to take positions on Houston’s force.
Earlier this month Austin’s city council voted unanimously to cut up to $150 million from its police department budget — about 34% of its current total — and reinvest the funds in other services, The Texas Tribune reported.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/houston-police-chief-recruits-from-defunded-police-departments