HOUSTON – With homicide and road rage incidents increasing in the Houston region, the Houston Police Department is in the spotlight along with other area law enforcement agencies to do something about it.
HPD Chief Art Acevedo, a guest on Houston Newsmakers, says the men and women on his force are up to the task.
“We’re going to have unmarked units, aircraft and marked units out enforcing it,” Acevedo said. “And I’m very proud of the fact that D.A. (Kim) Ogg has made a commitment with her and her team to throw the book at people when they’re caught engaging in this kind of conduct.”
Acevedo says the additional challenge is HPD manpower, but that will not be an excuse.
“We really have had the same number of officers for the past 20 years. The same number of officers we had 20 years ago but the city has grown by 500,000 folks. And our support staff has been cut by 53% because of the budgetary restraints of our city. Those are the realities.”
On this week’s Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall, Acevedo talks about the plan to win the war on crime and to also win the respect of the community. He said that he still remembers the botched Harding Street raid by HPD that resulted in the deaths of two people.
The U.S. $27 trillion debt not as bad as it looks
Jorge Barro, a fellow in public finance at the Baker Institute at Rice University, says the U.S. debt looks intimidating as it sits at an estimated $27 trillion.
However, Barro says the economic conditions right now make it easier to work through than you might think.
“I’m not here to convince you that it won’t be a problem at some point but in the near future rising debt isn’t expected to be a problem,” he said.
Find out why on this week’s program and why the stock market is distinctly separate from the economy as a barometer of how we’re doing:
- More Information:
- Chief Art Acevedo, Houston Police Department
- Twitter: @ArtAcevedo
- Jorge Barro, Ph.D., Fellow in Public Finance, Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University
- Twitter: @Baker Institute