Chief no stranger to controversy
Acevedo leaving raid fallout, lack of police reform
When Art Acevedo arrived in town, he set a new tone.
In both Austin, where he was chief for nine years, and Houston, he preached community policing. He spent time on the streets talking to people. He spoke bluntly, took on conservatives and liberals alike and promised transparency.
But by the time he left Austin to take over the Houston Police Department in late 2016, Aceve
do was staring down a brewing scandal after a state commission found the city’s crime lab was using outdated methods to examine DNA samples. He also faced pressure over an Austin police officer’s fatal shooting of an unarmed, naked high school student in February that year, and several months later apologized after video emerged of an officer slamming a woman to the ground during a minor traffic stop.
Now as he prepares to start a new job as police chief in Miami, he leaves behind a spike in crime, the fallout from a botched 2019 drug raid that left two homeowners dead, frayed relations between his administration and rankand-file officers, and growing discontent among police reform advocates who have called for changes recommended by a task force more than five months ago.
Supporters of Acevedo, the first Latino police chief in Austin and first Latino to lead HPD on a permanent basis, say he pushed his officers in both cities to engage with residents in ways they never had before. And he helped Houston endure some of its toughest moments, leading the law enforcement response to Hurricane Harvey and helping the city avoid damaging unrest that erupted elsewhere last summer after longtime Houston resident George Floyd’s death in Minnesota.
The chief’s allies and critics alike have marveled at his ability to overcome controversies that might have torpedoed the career ambitions of others. Those who have watched Acevedo’s rise say his resilience is a product of sharp political instincts, a blunt and gregarious persona and well-timed exits ahead of unfolding scandals.
“He is the chameleon of police chiefs in the U.S.,” said Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday. “He’s the best politician in the state of Texas, hands down. He can turn a tragic situation into something that benefits his department or him.”
But critics say the transparency he promised wasn’t delivered and that he didn’t tackle muchneeded reform of the department.
“Acevedo was great in front of the camera, with folks during the (Floyd) protests, but there was really little to no action outside of the camerawork,” said Julia Montiel, a strategist for ACLU Texas, who said Acevedo hadn’t put any policing reforms in place since then.
In California, where Acevedo’s career began, his steady climb through the ranks of the California Highway Patrol hit a wall in 2004.
Acevedo, a top candidate that year to replace the retiring highway commissioner, was passed over for the job after officials began investigating years-old allegations that he had stored sexually explicit photos of a fellow officer in the glove box of his cop car.
But instead of letting his career languish, he sued his bosses — later winning a nearly $1 million settlement — and took on a new role as chief of the planning and analysis division, then beat out the acting chief of the Austin Police Department to become the city’s top cop a few years later, at 42.
Up and down in Austin
In Austin, he set about remaking the department. He changed uniform policies, redid the department badge and ordered the police cars repainted.
“He demanded community-based policing,” Casaday said. “We went from ‘you will never talk to the press’ to ‘you need to get out and be with the community.’ The overall attitude — his first four, five years here — I would describe as really, really good.”
Acevedo cultivated that image to help grow the department’s size and influence. The budget swelled from approximately $238 million in 2010 to $372 million in his final year.
But while Acevedo charmed Austin at first, his relationship with the union soured over concerns he was punishing officers for political reasons. And two significant use-offorce incidents brought a whirlwind of criticism.
In February 2016, Austin police officers shot and killed a naked, unarmed 17year-old boy named David Joseph. Months later, video surfaced of an officer violently arresting Breaion King, a woman pulled over for speeding.
Despite the national attention those incidents brought, Acevedo beat out several other candidates to become Houston’s police chief in late 2016.
“I sought someone who was going to be a cop’s cop, who placed an emphasis on community policing, sensitive to the diversity in this city, who would keep us all safe,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said when he announced Acevedo’s appointment in November 2016.
Changes in Houston
Acevedo quickly began shaking up HPD, an institution that reveres history and tradition.
Facing a wave of retirements fueled by pension reform, Acevedo reorganized the department’s administrative structure and patrol districts. He instituted new policies allowing officers to display tattoos and grow facial hair. As he’d done in Austin, he redesigned the department’s badge, dismaying some officers.
He told top members of his command staff that he would promote them for only a few years before they had to find new jobs leading other departments or retire.
He also required the department’s leaders to participate in the city’s many cultural events and disciplined them if they did not.
“He has been really, really big with community engagement, probably more engaged with the community than ever before,” said Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union. “That I will give him. And that shows, because the community does love him.”
Acevedo also put more officers on overnight or weekend shifts, created a special investigations unit to probe officer shootings and formed a new homicide squad aimed at investigating major assaults before they led to fatalities.
He routinely appeared on nightly cable news programs, often to express high-profile disagreements with Republican politicians over gun rights and legislation designed to ban so-called sanctuary cities. He attracted still more attention after a wave of mass shootings across Texas, when he lashed out at the National Rifle Association and the political establishment for failing to do more to reform the nation’s gun laws and check gun violence.
But the botched Harding Street raid has continued to dog his tenure. Relatives of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle, the homeowners killed, said that Acevedo has blocked many efforts to learn about what happened, refusing to disclose basic details about the incident. Acevedo also refused for months to release an internal audit of the department’s narcotics division, doing so only after a string of critical stories in the Houston Chronicle. The audit showed wider problems than he previously acknowledged.
As crime intensified last year, Acevedo repeatedly emphasized the need for more officers and criticized bail reform practices, which he and other law enforcement officials have blamed for the uptick in violence across the region.
After Turner authorized millions of more overtime dollars, Acevedo pumped the money into additional patrols and investigations. He excoriated bail reform efforts, occasionally clashed with District Attorney Kim Ogg and heaped vitriol on the county’s Democratic judges. But observers said additional overtime dollars weren’t effective.
“Putting more money into police overtime ... obviously, that isn’t working,” said C.O. “Brad” Bradford, a former Houston police chief.
National attention
The hands-on style and emotional candor that endeared Acevedo to many Houstonians were on full display after the death of Floyd, a former Third Ward resident, under a policeman’s knee in Minneapolis last year.
The chief marched with protesters, called for more police accountability and delivered viral off-the-cuff remarks that seemed to tap into the nationwide outrage over police killings of Floyd and other Black people.
However, Acevedo’s moment on the national stage also refocused attention on the series of fatal recent shootings by Houston police officers, his refusal to release body-camera video of the incidents and his initial rejection of calls to strengthen the city’s Independent Police Oversight Board — one of the priorities of groups calling for America to reshape its approach to policing in the wake of Floyd’s death.
The movement spurred Turner to convene a task force to recommend reforms. The group delivered its recommendations in October, among them a blanket ban on no-knock warrants for nonviolent offenses, sweeping changes to the police oversight board and more stringent rules for investigating police misconduct.
Turner said he agreed with “almost all” of the task force’s recommendations, but he and Acevedo have yet to implement any of the major reforms.
Even as police reform advocates called on Turner to do a national search to pick a replacement who would enact meaningful changes after Acevedo announced his departure, the mayor moved quickly to pick an insider. On Thursday, he announced that Troy Finner, one of Acevedo’s top two assistant chiefs, would be the new chief.
In choosing Finner, Turner said a key priority is to implement recommendations made by his police reform task force. Larry Payne, the task force’s chairman, said he was ready to “keep momentum going” and was excited to work with Finner.
Some activists appeared more cautious.
“I believe he has a chance to do better than Acevedo, but he’s been assistant chief under both (former Chief Charles) McClelland and Acevedo, so I’m not sure there’s much room for improvement,” said Ashton Woods, founder of Black Lives Matter Houston. “I believe Finner is going to be stymied by Turner, who is slow to implement any of the changes and reforms of the task force he put together last year.”
Acevedo’s abrupt announcement came as a shock to many people at City Hall and the Houston political community. He was widely expected to mount a mayoral bid to succeed Turner, whose term ends in January 2024, or run for a different office in Texas.
“At first, I checked my calendar to make sure it wasn’t an April Fools’ joke,” said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, a former Houston police officer and city councilman. “I always thought he would go to a bigger stage, even though Miami is a pretty high-profile city. I thought he would go to Los Angeles or run for office.”
But critics said the mounting issues limited Acevedo’s options here, especially as it became clear his charisma and visibility — which helped him endure lesser challenges in California and Austin — would not be enough to solve the botched raid predicament or assuage police reform advocates.
In early March, Acevedo heard from Miami’s top leadership. Their police chief had announced his intention to retire months ago, and they needed a replacement. Was Acevedo interested?
He never formally applied for the job but twice met quietly with Miami City Manager Art Noriega earlier this month, according to the Miami Herald. They finalized the deal several days ago.
Acevedo has explained his decision to leave Houston by pointing to Turner’s dwindling second term and family considerations. He’s also expressed deep affection for Miami, where he first entered the United States in 1968 when his parents immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba.
Last Sunday night, the chief typed out an email to his troops. He had news that was “bittersweet.”
He was leaving.