HOUSTON – The Houston Independent School District announced Tuesday that it has named a Houston Police Department veteran as the district’s new police chief.
According to a news release, law-enforcement veteran Pedro Lopez Jr. has been named as the new head of the HISD Police Department.
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Lopez has 32 years of experience and spent 29 of those years with HPD, where he moved up in rank from patrol officer to the assistant chief for Patrol Region 1, HISD said.
He also spent some time with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Corrections, according to the release.
“We are fortunate to have a law enforcement veteran with the experience, training and expertise of Chief Lopez join our district and lead our police department of more than 200 officers,” HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said. “We know he will do a great job protecting our students, staff and campuses as we work to educate, train and support our global scholars.”
According to HPD Chief Art Acevedo, Lopez is a “dedicated, hardworking and extremely qualified” person.
Lopez will begin his new role at HISD on May 25. The former HISD chief, Paul Cordova will be taking on the chief or police position for Aldine ISD.