Saturday, February 15, 2014

Social Media Questions Answered

On Saturday, February 1, we had such a great response at the Town Hall Meeting that we were unable to ask the questions submitted via social media. We have since sat down with HPD Chief Charles McClelland, and he has answered the questions asked by our Facebook and Twitter followers. Thank you everyone who submitted questions. 



Answer: 

The state of Texas allows for concealed carry when a person has successfully completed a Concealed Handgun Licensing Program. When an HPD officer stops a CHL holder on traffic, that person must show their concealed handgun license and tell the officer if they have a weapon in their car and where it is. 

Officers are a group of people like any other group, and have the ability to form their own opinions.  While officers have their own personal opinions on whether citizens should have an ability to carry a concealed weapon, HPD officers enforce state and federal laws regardless of their personal opinions and remain impartial.




Answer:


Mayor Parker created the Independent Police Oversight Board (IPOB) to have community involvement in various aspects of HPD services.  The panel consists of 29 members appointed by the mayor.  Members are experts in criminal justice and include retired judges, prosecutors and civil rights attorneys.  The IPOB has access to all records and reviews all internal affairs investigations, and makes recommendations to the Chief of Police regarding discipline.  They also review and make recommendations on training procedures and hiring of new officers.  

In 2013 the number of IAD complaints received by HPD was a record low.  There were 235 complaints filed by citizens against officers, in comparison to 1,178 commendations filed by citizens applauding efforts of HPD employees last year. 

The goal of HPD is to have the most professional police department in the United States, with a strong emphasis on providing good customer service.  We welcome the input of the IPOB and citizens. 



Answer:

I’m sorry that you had to sit in traffic before the event.  When locations such as the Reliant complex have events, the traffic control functions are coordinated directly by Reliant, using law enforcement officers from various agencies through extra employment.  







Answer:

Yes, external vests will be an optional part of the uniform for officers.





Answer:


Door to door solicitors are regulated by Houston city ordinance and community deed restrictions.  Solicitors who are requesting donations for a charitable organization are required by ordinance to have a permit; all other solicitors are not required to have a permit.  However, police officers have limited abilities to enforce door to door solicitation when solicitors leave when asked and do not enter posted private properties.  Therefore, it is up to each individual neighborhood to work with their homeowner’s associations to enforce violations of their deed restrictions.      

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Question from a citizen in the audience

"What education does HPD provide in schools regarding gang violence and drugs?"

AC Curran: Patrol Captains have community service officers that go out to the schools and talk on various topics. They are available to go out and speak. 


Question from a citizen in the audience

"Is there a plan in place to properly destroy the old light blue uniforms?"

Larry Yium: We will try to recycle some of them but the patches will be taken off. Whatever can't be used, we will be shredding. 

Question from a citizen in the audience

"I am with LULAC and we are very concerned with the 'use of force.' Citizens are afraid to call the police. Why is there a high number of citizens killed by police who are unarmed (25%)?"


Chief McClelland: HPD has the most extensive training of any LEO agency in this state or in the US bar none. The Command Staff is very diverse. The Chief does not control promotions; it is done by a process. Each rank has a certain number of personnel. Those examinations are competitive written tests and assessment centers ranked by outside vendors. Your score puts you on the rank list; not your skin color. When it comes to the use of deadly force, regarding the dash cam, some will always have them in units such as DWI enforcement. Regarding the gentleman in the wheelchair, a dash cam would not have caught any of the incident. Many incidents happen away from the police car.  The police-involved shootings in the 3-4 years since I've been Chief is the most scrutinized. 
There is nothing in state law, federal law or training that says an officer cannot fire his/her weapon if the suspect is unarmed. The officer's justification to use deadly force lies with the officers perception. This has been upheld by the US Supreme Court. A police officer can be wrong but not criminally wrong. They make a split second decision to save their live or someone else's life.
The unfortunate case about the amputee in the wheelchair, that case was investigated by Homicide, Harris County Grand Jury, Internal Affairs, Harris County DA and the FBI. They all said the same thing: the officer's decision to use force did not violate law or civil rights. It was a horrible case and was unfortunate. FBI is a Federal Agency; I do not have control over them and they came to the same conclusion.  

HPD is made up of 51% minorities. We have 1100 bilingual officers; 900 of them speak Spanish. 

Question from a citizen in the audience

"There is a huge stray population in Houston. How can my organization (Barrio Dogs) work with HPD to help these animals?"

Chief McClelland: BARC does not have sufficient resources for city wide. It starts with responsible pet owners. Spay/neuter your pets, don't let them walk off leash. My officers are not trained or have the equipment needed to deal with stray animals. In a life threatening situation we will protect someone's life. In most situations, we have to call BARC and wait for them to respond. It is a resource issue with BARC. 

Question from a citizen in audience

"I heard there is a tolerance policy regarding cars with booming stereos. I want to know if this is true?"

Chief McClelland: From what you are saying, no officers have not been told not to enforce the ordinance. Many times if a car is moving it is gone when officers get there. 

EAC Dirden: We use a meter to measure the decibel level. It is hard to identify the actual car that made the noise when the officer shows up after the fact.  Perhaps you can sit down with the captain from your part of town and discuss it.

Question from a citizen in the audience

"Can dispatchers receive better training on how to handle calls from citizens?"

Chief McClelland: When someone calls 911 or HPD, you are speaking to a call taker who is a City of Houston employee, not HPD. The only employee I have at dispatch is the individual who actually gives the call to the officer. The call taker gives the information to my dispatcher. So if a call taker is rude, or asks inappropriate questions, I cannot discipline that employee or retrain them. But I can pass on the complaints and the displeasure.

Question from a citizen in the audience

"What type of training have you brought forth for officers to deal with special needs citizens?"

EAC Dirden: We have created a mental health division plus all officers receive Crisis Intervention Training on duty. This gives officers the tools to deal with situations so it won't lead to violence. We dispatch SWAT and Hostage Negotiation with the goal to stabalyze the scene to control the situation without resorting to violence.

We understand despite all of the training situations can still happen but we continue to move forward and learn. 

Question from a citizen in the audience

"We need to support the cite and release law. The Mayor has said the officers would enforce the law. Can HPD commit to the cite and release law?"

Chief McClelland: DA Devon Anderson does not support cite and release. My officers are going to support the law. The Harris County DA is the chief law enforcement authority in the council. 

Question from a citizen in the audience

"Is something going to be done to have a better response time considering the case that happened yesterday? (2-4 hour response to a burglary call)"

EAC Munden: We have a number of response priorities and categorize them. Priority 1 is life threatening calls and the average response time is just over 4 minutes. Priority 2 calls the average response time just over 9 minutes. Property crimes the response time is 28 minutes. 

If we see a certain area has a slower response time we will adjust resources to improve that.

Question from a citizen in the audience

Question: "Even one case of police misconduct is one too many. I thank God that the vast majority of officers are good. What can you do about police misconduct?"

Chief McClelland: We have a more transparent organization. We have more ways to file complaints such as LULAC, NAACP, online, by mail, you can even file a complaint from jail. We don't have a special place to hire officers; they come from society. We have one of the most rigorous recruiting standards and we have not watered it down. We have the best training in the nation. We have to make sure supervisors are providing leadership to the younger officers. I am accountable if someone does something egregious. 

HPD Town Hall Live Blog

Greeting by HPD PIO Victor Senties

The town hall meeting is being live streamed on HPD's YouTube channel www.youtube.com/houstonpolicedept

Opening blessing by PACA member Rev. Nash.

Introduction of the HPD Command Staff.

Citizens are encouraged to meet and speak with the Patrol Captains from their neighborhoods.

UH Chief of Police Ceasar Moore welcomes everyone to the UH campus.

HPD Charles A. McClelland, Jr. welcomes everyone to the event and speaks about HPD's goals and objectives. 

Video is presented showing how the body cameras work and what they record.


Captain Skillern comes up to the stage to discuss the use of body cameras and shows video examples of how officers are using body cameras. 



Q&A is over. Any questions not asked here during the meeting will be answered and posted here to this blog. 

Friday, January 31, 2014

Stage is ready

HPD is ready to take your questions tomorrow.  Remember if you can't be here in person you can tweet questions to @houstonpolice and use #hpdtownhall.  We will also be live streaming the event on HPD's YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/houstonpolicedept.