Nearly a month into his first term in office, Houston Mayor John Whitmire is calling for a merger of the Houston Police Department and the Houston METRO Police.
Hearkening back to the days when Houston’s airport police and park police were rolled into the Houston Police Department, Whitmire says he hopes to complete the merger in the next few months. He acknowledged there will be hurdles such as reconciling issues of pension, pay, and overall finances, but says he has full confidence in HPD Chief Troy Finner to oversee the merger.
In a statement, Sanjay Ramabhadran, METRO’s board chairman, said:
We look forward to working on the details of Mayor Whitmire’s proposal. The Metro Police Department has long partnered with other law enforcement agencies, including HPD. It is always good to see what more we can do for public safety. The mechanics of it need work when you are talking about departments, service areas, labor, and pension matters. As an agency, we are committed to seeing what all we can do. There is the decision to say we should ...
