4: How Relational Policing is Saving Lives in Houston w/ Chief Art Acevedo
They say everything is bigger in Texas, except the police budgets.
Houston, Texas is a policing challenge, to say the least. The city will soon be the third largest in the country. It has 500,000 more people than 20 years ago, but 300 fewer police officers. There are 20,000 registered gang members (and many more that are unregistered).
The city’s truly under-resourced police department has learned how to operate very leanly. But since a new police chief arrived in late 2016, homicides are down 15% since last year.
To understand how Houston is doing it, we asked Chief Art Acevedo of the Houston Police Department.