Community leaders react to HPD Chief's sudden exit

HOUSTON - Many people across Houston are reacting to Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo’s announced departure. 

Acevedo publicly announced Monday that he will be leaving for the Miami Police Department within a few weeks. So far, there seems to be both positive and negative reactions towards the Chief’s performance in Houston.

"I want to know what he is running from," said Tomaro Bell, a member of the Super Neighborhood Alliance. "That concerns me.  What is about to fall?  It’s not like he’s getting out and things are rosy and dandy."

"He has held an open door policy for community activists and the community in general," said Agustin Pinedo from League of United Latin American Citizens. "We’d always get him on the phone, and he’d answer. We’d get straight answers."

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Acevedo has served as HPD’s chief since 2016 with roughly 5,400 sworn officers. In Miami, he’ll lead about 1,300 officers.

"I’m indifferent," said Ashton P Woods from Black Lives Matter. "I’m on the school that wants to abolish the police and I want to defund the police. It’s ironic one would from a large police department, to a smaller police department. Something is fishy."

Perhaps one of the more controversial incidents under Chief Acevedo occurred in 2019. That January, HPD killed two people inside their Harding Street home in Southeast Houston during a "no-knock" narcotics warrant.

"He’s kind of running away from the matter," said John Nicholas, a brother of one of the people killed in the Harding Street raid. "He never has been accountable for what really happened over there at Harding Street with my sister, her husband, and the dog. To this day, we never heard from him an apology, about [them messing up]."

Chief Acevedo has pushed for what he calls "relational policing" for his officers. In the summer of 2020, Acevedo linked arms with protesters following the Minneapolis shooting death of Houston’s own George Floyd.

"That’s optics," said Woods. "I believe that’s someone that knows how to use charisma. He’s a charismatic figure. He knows how to tell people what they want to hear."

"It took a lot of courage to go out there, and walk among those protesters," said Bell. "I can assure you, in some big cities, they wouldn’t have done that, and he did it."

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The City of Houston is expected to name an interim HPD chief as soon as this week.

"Any police chief coming behind him, has to be honest with the people of Houston," said Woods.

"He hasn’t been held accountable for Harding Street, my sister’s location," said Nicholas. "I don’t understand why the city, or the mayor, hasn’t held him accountable."