Group urges reform at HPD
Mayor’s task force calls for stricter probe rules, stronger oversight board
Mayor Sylvester Turner’s police reform task force will recommend sweeping changes to the city’s police oversight board and a blanket ban on no-knock warrants for nonviolent offenses, according to draft copies of the recommendations shared with the Houston Chronicle.
The 45-person group, appointed a month after police officers in Minnesota killed former Houston resident George Floyd, also will suggest more stringent rules for investigating police misconduct and new policies that would require the Houston Police Department to publicize complaints against officers, among other reforms aimed at increasing transparency.
Near the beginning of the 71-page report, which recommends more than100 reforms, task force members wrote that previous police reform proposals “have been frequently accepted but rarely enacted” by city officials, such as those from Turner’s transition committee on criminal justice that went mostly ignored.
“The results of this Task Force’s recommendations need to be applied lest we further demoralize our community,”
the draft report reads. “How many reports and tasks forces are needed before the HPD is accountable and reformed for the good?”
Turner, who controls City Council’s agenda and negotiates with the police union on contracts, has repeatedly said he wants to wait until the task force issues its recommendations before commenting on specific reform proposals. However, the mayor said earlier this month he is “99.999 percent certain there will be some adjustments” to Houston’s Independent Police Oversight Board.
The mayor said Monday afternoon he had not received a copy of the recommendations. He said there are tentative plans to unveil the report at a news conference Wednesday.
The Chronicle obtained the report from sources who described the proposals as the task force’s final recommendations but stressed that the document could undergo small last-minute changes before going to the mayor’s desk.
Among the task force’s first recommendations is to beef up the beleaguered oversight board with funding, including paid professional staff, and facilities outside the police department. The group also recommended allowing the oversight board to report some of its findings to the community, which it is currently barred from doing.
Alongtime member resigned in August, arguing that the board “provides cover by making it appear that independent oversight is taking place,” and five City Council members asked Turner weeks later for a “complete overhaul.”
Earlier this month, when four officers were fired for their involvement in the April 21 death of Nicolas Chavez — a 27-year-old who was on his knees when officers fired 21rounds at him— police union officials defended the officers, citing an oversight board panel’s finding that the shooting was justified. The task force cited that finding in calling for the board chair and panel chairs to be replaced.
“It is distressing to the Task Force that the civilians put in place to hold officers accountable would defend these officers’ actions when even the Chief of Police himself said that he ‘cannot defend (the officers’) actions and deemed their use of force ‘not objectively reasonable,’ ” task force members wrote.
The task force also recommended issuing an outright ban
on no-knock warrants for nonviolent offenses, a practice that gained attention in Houston and elsewhere after the botched January 2019 drug raid on Harding Street that left two homeowners dead. Police Chief Art Acevedo changed department policy to allow no-knock warrants only with approval from top-ranking police officials and a signature froma district court judge.
Task force members said even Acevedo should not be allowed to approve such raids for those accused of nonviolent crimes, which they argued do not merit high-risk operations that could injure officers and civilians.
The document proposes several changes that are at odds with the Houston Police Officers’ Union’s existing contract and would require union approval to take effect. Those include changes to howthe department handles allegations of police misconduct, reforms that would likely spark significant pushback from rankand-file officers. Those proposals, such as extending the window to discipline officers found to have committed misconduct, also would conflict with state law, though a police union could agree to the changes via their contract, which would supersede state law.
Other task force recommenda
tions include:
• Change current rules that allow officers to review evidence against them before making any statements.
• Extend the time the police department has to hand down discipline so there is more time to investigate.
• Create a program to encourage Houston police officers to live within city limits and assign officers to neighborhoods on longterm bases.
• Overhaul the process for filing complaints against officers, including being able to submit on
line and offering complaint forms in different languages.
• Require HPD to install dashcams in all its patrol cars and to release body-camera video of excessive force or police shootings to the public within 30 days.
• Reduce incidents of excessive force and improve officer safety by investing in an “Early Warning System” that looks at officer performance to identify high-risk officers; maintain a public database of complaints against officers, sustained and unsustained; increase the amount and type of de-escalation training in the Academy; and
have officers ride in two-person units in high-crime areas.
• Ban no-knock warrants for nonviolent offenses (officers currently must seek Acevedo’s written approval before using such tactics) and place additional restrictions on when officers can use force. The new proposal would bar the use of deadly force if a suspect is unarmed, running away, driving away or sitting in a parked car, not armed with a gun, or if the officer is alone.
“Given the all too numerous unjustified uses of deadly force, the rules and expectations regarding the use of deadly force must be reassessed before the community can explicitly trust officers with their lives,” the task force authors wrote.
Some of the task force recommendations include changes unlikely to receive a welcome reception, including creating an independent investigator of police misconduct separate from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, or others that suggested including convicted felons and immigrants living in the country unlawfully on the IPOB.