HOUSTON (AP) - Reforms recommended by a community task force that aim to improve policing in Houston and boost trust between residents and officers are being implemented in the nation’s fourth largest city, officials announced Thursday.
Among the new initiatives are a timeline for the release of body-camera video and changes to the city’s Independent Police Oversight Board. The overhaul will make it easier for members of the public to register complaints against officers, and $25 million will be invested in programs that help officers respond to mental health crisis calls.
“Police reform is society’s reform … Change does come and change will continue to come,” said Larry Payne, chairman of the task force.
Mayor Sylvester Turner created the task force of residents, community advocates, and faith and business leaders last summer during protests calling for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted last week of murder and manslaughter for killing Floyd, a Black man who grew up in Houston.
The task force submitted its recommendations in September.
The Houston police department has been criticized for taking too long to release body camera footage after police shootings and has faced scrutiny over a 2019 deadly drug raid that resulted in the death of a couple and the indictments of a dozen current and former officers.
“If the chief of police or police officers can’t listen and hear the citizens and feel their hearts, we’re not going to be successful … This is the start of much more to come,” Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference.
Finner and Turner said body camera footage from police shootings or use of force incidents would be released within 30 days. A new website will provide information on use of force and discipline taken against officers, and residents will be able to submit police complaints online, Turner said.
The city’s Independent Police Oversight Board has been criticized as ineffective because it doesn’t have subpoena power to conduct its own investigations and can’t accept complaints from residents. Turner announced a new leader for the board and the appointment of a city deputy inspector general who will have a small staff to investigate complaints that reach the board.
The city will spend about $25 million to expand programs and hire more staff, including counselors, to help officers when they respond to calls involving individuals experiencing a mental health crisis, officials said.
Last year, four officers were terminated after an internal investigation determined they didn’t use reasonable force when they fired their weapons 21 times at 27-year-old Nicolas Chavez, who had been experiencing a mental health crisis. Chavez’s family has since filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
Turner said the city has already implemented half of the task force’s 104 recommendations.
Criminal justice reform advocates called the new initiatives an important step but said more must be done.
“Most importantly, we must reimagine the role of police in our communities in part by reducing the size and scope of policing. And we must invest in things like housing, education, and health care, especially in Black and brown communities,” said Julia Montiel, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
Hai Bui with We the People Organize, a community group, credited Turner for announcing a ban on no-knock warrants for non-violent offenses. Such a warrant was used in the 2019 drug raid that resulted in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas in their home.
“However, transparency and accountability is still not there, said Bui.
Houston’s police reforms follow a wave of similar changes in dozens of states. In Congress, debate continues over whether to approve the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which in part would create national standards for policing.
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