HOUSTON – On the final day of 2024, Houston Mayor John Whitmire sat down for a one-on-one interview with KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding.
Whitmire is nearing the end of his first year in office and covered a variety of topics with Goulding.
The mayor has said from day one that public safety has been a huge focus for him as mayor.
“Certainly public safety is still my primary objective. It’s my highest priority,” Whitmire told Goulding.
In fact, Whitmire said he will be out on the streets on New Year’s Eve, observing Houston first responders.
“I am looking forward to it because first it helps me witness firsthand our first responders doing a great job,” he said.
Whitmire addressed the changes this year at the Houston Police Department. With the departure of former Chief Troy Finner and new Chief Noe Diaz coming in, Whitmire expressed great confidence in the new chief.
“I believe currently Chief Diaz is the best police chief in America,” Whitmire said. “And I don’t say that because I appointed him and I’ve worked with him for 20 years when he was a Texas Ranger, He was embedded in work with HPD. He knows HPD. He knows our region. He’s a former Texas Ranger and he’s a no-nonsense crime fighter.”
Whitmire said Chief Diaz has greatly improved the morale of the department. He described things as “very upbeat” at HPD.
He acknowledged the challenges with improving public safety and recruiting more officers.
“We have a large city and it’s growing. So we’re recruiting, being smarter about who we have and how we use those officers,” he said. “For instance, Diaz is getting officers from Central Station from behind a desk out on patrol. So it’s not just the number of officers, it’s how you use what you have. So we’re making those improvements.”
Mayor Whitmire said something he will be speaking out more about in 2025 is the low bonds offenders are getting once they are arrested.
“HPD officers arresting bad actors, dangerous actors, repeat felons. Take them over to the courthouse. And many times they get a personal recognition bond. They get a very low monetary bond and they’re back out on the streets,” he said. “So we arrest folks. With our hardworking HPD officers, they take them to intake often. Oftentimes, they’re given a low bond. They’re released within 24 hours.”
He says he will be working with the new District Attorney to address this issue.
“So we’ve got to partner with our new D.A., our courts to say hold bad people accountable, innocent people, let them go back to their family and jobs. But the violent repeat offenders we want off the streets of Houston,” Whitmire said.
