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.