Okay.

Uh appreciate.

Let's get right to it.

HPD, the biggest budget of the city, and the last budget workshop.

I apologize, I'm going to have to be stepping out.

Um my vice chair will be taking over here in a little while.

Um, but just want to take this opportunity before I go to thank all of my colleagues for all of your participation in the workshops.

I do want to welcome Council Member Salinas who came in during the last workshop.

And uh mostly I want to thank my staff, Katie and Jordan and Helen who really do all the heavy lifting for these workshops.

Um, very, very grateful for your support.

And with that, uh Chief, the floor is yours.

Good morning.

Because you're okay.

There you go.

Good morning.

Uh I'm here along with the interim deputy director Joanne Trent, and uh we're here today to present the Houston Police Department FY 2027 proposed budget, which includes a general fund allocation of just over 1.2 billion dollars.

I'm honored to be here on behalf of Chief Diaz to represent the hardworking classified officers and civilian professionals who serve the residents of Houston every day.

Under the leadership of Chief Diaz, HPD continues to focus on accountability, fiscal responsibility, and above all service.

We continue to reinforce the foundation of this department by building new initiatives that are designed to improve efficiency, support our officers, and better serve the people of Houston.

I'm proud to report that crime is down in the city of Houston across all NIVERS categories.

Response times are down across all categories, and crashes are down across all categories as well.

Some areas of progress that I'll touch on at the end for accomplishments are recruitment and retention, operational changes in patrol that improved officer wellness, decreased response times, and decrease overtime spending, the addition of operational support division and the patrol support unit, which we're very proud of.

And as we move into the specifics of the proposed budget, I just want to sincerely thank the mayor and city council and all of you here for your continued partnership and commitment to public safety.

Your support has allowed the department to continue to improve and meet the needs of citizens of Houston, and we greatly appreciate you all.

Next slide.

Next slide.

So here we have the HPD org chart.

The significant change here from last year is if you look at the very top right, the yellow box to the right of chief of staff is operational support division.

And like I said, I'll touch on that toward the end.

Next slide.

Okay, HPD at a glance.

So the numbers as of April 30th, 2026, you see in front of you, the ones I'd like to highlight.

So our uh breakdown by gender, the department as a whole, 76% male, 24% female.

If you look at our classified workforce or our police officers, we're 81% male, 19% female.

If you look at our cadets right now in the academy, it's 79% male, 21% female.

So hopefully in seven or eight months, our numbers will increase on female officers.

And then if you look at our ethnicity, we are a majority minority department.

So we are broken up classified Hispanic officers, 36%, white officers or 34%, African American officers, 21%, Asian 8%, and then other or mixed makes up one percent of the department.

We serve an incredibly diverse city, and we are very fortunate and blessed to have a police department that represents the community we serve.

And there was efforts made a very long time ago to increase those numbers, but the fact is today that the city of Houston is so diverse, and the citizens that live in our city and the ones that have a desire to serve, we have to do very little to ensure that uh the diversity of our applicants is maintained.

We have a lot of people in the city with a heart for service, and and the applications and the ethnicity breakdown of our applicants showed that.

Next slide.

Strategic guidance alignment.

So here discussing the alignment to the mayor's defined priorities initiatives and the way our budget breaks down.

So as you can imagine, 95% of ours goes in public safety, and then a little bit of quality of life and government that works.

Next slide.

Okay, plans to eliminate the gap.

We've outlined HPD's $8.9 million dollar budget reductions by program.

So as we look to try to make reductions to better align our operations and our staffing levels with the city's current needs and our current organizational needs, along with prioritizing prioritizing services to the community.

We cut 8.9 million dollars out of this budget, and we made up for it in two ways, or we accounted for in two ways.

Number one, a million and a half dollars came from our EPRO system, which is our program allowing retired officers to come back and work on a part-time basis for an hourly wage to help with a whole variety of things.

As of July 1 of 27, that program will be eliminated for now.

So that makes up for or that accounts for 1.5 million.

Another 7.4 million comes from 91 FTs or full-time equivalent civilian positions that we are freezing for this budget year.

Um classified or our civilian workforce at the Houston Police Department is absolutely invaluable to us.

We hate to be at this point, but when we look at the services we need to provide to the citizens of Houston, this is the spot where the two spots we felt like we could make the cuts right now with the least amount of impact to response times, investigations, and so forth.

I would note that this year, you know, we'll touch on this in a minute, but this year our overtime spending is down twenty-two percent as opposed to last year by dollar, but it's down twenty-seven percent by hours work.

As you guys know, we had a contract, a contract that gave us um a much needed raise, which is also helped with recruiting and retention, which I'll discuss in a little while.

But with those contract obligations come raises, and with those raises, the overtime rates go go up by hour.

So it's not just the financial amount that's important, but it's the number of hours work that accounts for that financial amount as well.

As we move through the budget year, and Joanne will touch on this a little bit, but as we move to the budget year, we're constantly looking at making.

So as budget line items are allocated as the year goes on.

Our focus as a police department and as an executive staff is to keep the overall bottom line on budget.

We may go over on some line items, below on other some some line items, but our goal is to meet the final budget at the end of the fiscal year, right?

On at the end of June.

So with that, we'll turn over to Joanne.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you, and good afternoon, Council members.

Before I begin my piece of the presentation, I like to take a moment to recognize the police financial services team for their dedication, hard work in finalizing this year's budget and preparing today's presentation.

Their commitment, including many late nights and weekends made it possible.

I appreciate the opportunity to present the FY27 financial budget for HPD, and am honored to do so on their behalf.

Team, please stand up to be recognized.

Thank you.

A lot of money in small teams.

Next slide, please.

Oh, that's it.

That's the right slide.

Uh the revenue by fund is this slide.

This slide compares the HPD's FY27 proposed revenue to the FY26 estimate.

It's organized by the funding sources.

It shows where the biggest shifts are happening.

Our total revenue is projected to be decreased by $5,000 for FY27.

Let me give you a quick overview of each fund and explain what's driving the changes.

The general fund, an increase of $6.3 million, or increase of 8%.

The general fund is our largest and most flexible source.

It includes reimbursement from the Metro and the Houston Airport system, as well as revenues from open records, traffic reports, and take home vehicles.

5.5 million of that 6.35 is related increase is related to the Houston Airport System reimbursement for the IAH and hobby operations and hobby also includes the Ellington uh Ellington Airport.

Increase is primarily attributed to the 8% increase in the classified base pay for the meet and confer.

A $2.2 million increase from the Metro Mobility General Mobility Program is now projected for $29.7 million for FY 27.

An offset by the decrease of 1.3 million dollars.

It is related to a one-time FEMA funds received for the Durachial storm that occurred in FY26 but will not occur in FY27.

The next fund is the Police Special Services Fund, a decrease of $4.2 million.

This fund holds the restricted use revenues, such as special event reimbursements, training, training grants, and donations.

The net decrease is primarily due to the FIFA World Cup and in homelessness in homelessness costs that was in the police special services fund, but is now in the grants.

The next fund is auto dealers fund, and this is a decrease of $125,000.

The auto dealers fund supports regulations of auto dealers, storage lots, and towing operations.

Revenues come from licenses, permits, and towing fees.

This decrease is due to a drop in revenue from unclaimed vehicles sold at auction, which can fluctuate annually.

Across the 17 school districts in the city of Houston.

It is funded by vehicle registration fees and court fines tied to the school zone violations.

The next fund is asset forfeiture funds, a decrease of $1.89 million dollars.

These funds come from seizures of assets linked to criminal activity that helps support overtime surveillance and specialized law enforcement.

So only the state forfeiture funds, about $2 million can be budgeted.

Federal funds from the Department of Treasury, Department of Justice, or Department of Treasuries are not allowed to be included in the budget per federal rules.

Again, the asset forfeiture, they come from the seizures of assets, so we really it's not a revenue generating type fund.

So it's it's what we get from our involvement with the uh with related to seizures of assets in criminal activities.

The next fund is the forensic transition fund, that's a decrease of 37,000.

This fund offsets costs for city employees working in the Houston Forensic Center, and this is uh HPD is reimbursed for these personal expenses.

So going into FY27, this fund has transitioned to zero FTEs.

Last year we had one uh civilian that was in this fund, and uh this coming year it will be zero FTEs, and this next fund is a human trafficking recovery response fund.

This fund is a special revenue fund to comply with changes in Texas law requiring forfeited assets from human trafficking and related prostitution offenses to be used solely to support victims of those crimes.

So this is uh a a uh special uh fund that uh that requires a separate uh fund to be set up, and just like Harris County, they also have a human trafficking recovery response fund.

Again, this fund is only for the support of the victims of those crimes, so it's very specific.

Next slide.

This is a chart of the revenue by the fund.

HPD's revenue sources are a blend of service reimbursement, restricted use program funds, and special events support.

The proposed budget reflects increased activity and planning for FY27, particularly for events and continues to ensure cost recovery across our operations.

This slide provides a visual snapshot of HPD's revenue by fund and it shows the FY25 actuals, the FY26 adopted budget, FY26 estimate, and the FY27 proposed budget.

I'd like to take a moment to describe the makeup of these revenues and their sources.

First, the total proposed revenue for FY27 is approximately $114.7 million.

Now I'm going to go into the different colors of the funds that it represents here on this chart.

The first fund is the general fund for the FY27 proposed, is the $87.4 million.

This is the largest component of our revenue out of the $114.7 million dollars.

And in the general fund, the $87.4, $49 million of that comes from the Houston Airport system reimbursement for the services that we provide at IAH and Hobby and Ellington.

The next another $30 million is from reimbursed from the Metro through the General Mobility Program.

And another $5 million comes from the administrative fees and indirect cost recovery from the auto dealers fund.

And then additional $3 million comes from the take-home vehicle fees, open record requests, and incidental report fees.

And for the police special service fund, $9.4 million is projected for the revenue.

$5.2 million is reimbursement for contributions that we have with the external agencies that we work with them on, such as the FBI, DEA and the management districts, and others for security and event support.

1.2 million is from the business contributions supporting the human trafficking prevention efforts.

And 1.2 million is a transfer from the tourist.

Actually, of that 1.2,980 is from the tourists for the our downtown downtown district.

And another 230 is for the from the business of office of business opportunity for the 911 Crisis Call Diversion Program that we have with the Hair Center.

And then 1.1 million for mobility permits, environmental violator restitution cases, gambling seizures, and other sources.

And this is for the law enforcement officer standards and education or LEOs, and that's for the police personnel training.

The next fund is auto dealers fund, $12.5 million.

This fund supports the regulation of auto dealers, auctions, towing, and storage lots, and revenues from the industry licensing, inspecting fees, and towing-related charges.

The child safety fund, the $3.3 million.

Again, we the police department is a pass through.

It supports the $600 crossing guards across the city of Houston in the 17 school districts.

And again, the revenue is from the vehicle registration fees and the municipal court fines tied to the school zone and parking violations.

Asset forfeiture, the revenue here is $2 million.

Again, these funds come from the state-level law enforcement actions, supports overtime narcotics investigations, equipment and other enforcement costs.

We don't uh budget for the federal uh revenues due to the legal restrictions.

And the uh forensic forensic fund, the forensic transition fund is zero for the coming uh FY27, and the human trafficking response and recovery fund is for $104,000.

Next slide.

For the revenue highlights, this this slide shows the revenue highlights.

We already discussed that back in slide seven when we were comparing the variances between the FY27 proposed budget and FY26 estimate.

So we'll go on to the next slide.

This slide shows the revenue by the various programs that we have.

Keeping in mind that the outcome-based budgeting on this slide, we list all the relevant programs and performance measures for HPD.

Here we'll uh highlight all the revenues and HPD generates.

Again, this is across all funds.

The police patrol variants decrease of 122,000 is primarily due to the North Belt facility rental anticipated to expire in 2027 in the police services fund.

The Homeland Security Special Events Vance decrease of $4.4 million is primarily due to the FIFA World Cup Soccer and in Street Homelessness being accounted for now in the grants instead of the special services fund.

The investigative variance decrease of $1.8 million is primarily due to federal guidelines not allowing the funds from the Federal Department of Treasury and Department of Justice to be budgeted in advance in the asset forfeiture.

And the airport system variants increase of $5.5 million is primarily due to the general fund increased reimbursement from HASS for the airport operations, and this is the increase of the 8% in the classified base pay for the meet and confer.

The traffic enforcement increase of $2.2 million is primarily due to the increase in Metro General Mobility Program in the general fund.

The training variance decrease of $23,000 is due to the training track rental available for use for the full physical year in FY27 in the police special services fund.

And the mental health decrease is primarily due to site inspection of the police special services fund.

The next program is a strategic operations variance decrease of 258,000.

This is primarily due to the estimate decrease in the number of amount associated with CLACE's cases cleared awarded to HPD in the general fund.

And the last program is administrative service variance decrease of 1.1 million, and this is due to that one-time FEMA payment for the Doratia storm in the general fund that is no longer, is not happening in FY27.

The next slide, please.

This slide shows the presents a alternate view of the Houston Police Department FY27 proposed budget across all funds, excluding grants and capital improvement projects.

The total budget display is 1.25 million billion dollars.

This view enforces the HPD remains labor-intensive department with the majority of the dedicated to personnel costs.

Across all funds, personnel expenditures account for approximately 87.5% of the FY27 budget, while non-personnel account for the remaining 12.5%.

In FY27, approximately 83% of the department's $8.9 million in the reduction that Chief Harden talked about, is achieved through the elimination of the 91 FTEs or vacant civilian positions, and the remaining 17% or the $1.5 is realized through the elimination of the employee program of retired officers.

These reductions reflect the department's ongoing efforts to streamline operations, prioritize if essential services, align available resources with the city's overall budget strategy.

This chart on the slide further illustrates the alternate view of FY27 breakdown of the personnel and non-personnel funding for general fund and special funds, again, excluding grants and uh capital improvement projects.

Next slide.

Now we'll get into the expenditures by fund.

This fund compares the FY27 proposed budget to the FY26 current budget by fund, and it highlights the net changes in expenditures.

Personnel costs continue to represent the department's largest expenditure driver, while this slide also highlights strategic funding increases associated with global and citywide events.

Overall, HPD's FY27 proposed expenditures for FY27 reflect a net increase of $76 million or 7% compared to the FY26 current budget.

For the general fund, the increase of 87.

The makeup of that increase, $85.3 million is for the classified compensation for the meet and confer, and it includes the health and pension.

$8.9 million is for the restricted account allocations.

$6.6 million is for the classified overtime.

$3.8 million is for the civilian compensation for our hope contract and the health and pension.

An $8.9 million is for the budget reduction, and $6.6 million decrease is for the approved PBJs that for FY26 and 27.

The classified overtime, the uniform and equipment, critical positions, the wellness, and the remaining cadet salary incentive.

The next fund is police special services fund, the decrease of 10.6 million dollars.

This decrease is attributed to the FIFA World Cup game that we had budgeted in the police special services at the time when we were doing it in FY26.

We did we did not know that it was gonna be a grant from the state.

So it was budgeted like when we hosted the Super Bowl, the organization's uh reimburses for that.

But since then we find out it's a grant from the federal and state.

The next fund is the auto dealers fund, and this is that increase of the 46,000 is primarily due to the supplies and services, and the child safety fund, the decrease of 87,000.

Again, HPD is a uh is the middle, uh we we act as a middle conduit, we get the funds and we we uh send it straight out to the schools.

So this is from the prior balance that's roll over from the physical previous fiscal year that's not anticipated in FY27.

And the asset forfeiture, the 97,000 increase is due to the overtime expenditures for unscheduled events and unallocated capital projects.

And the forensic fund uh that decreases because we're going from the one to zero employees for the FY27.

Next slide, thank you.

This is a expenditures by fund graph.

Uh the slide outlines the total expenditures for HPD's general fund and special funds, which is about 97% of our expenditures are funded from the general fund.

I'm gonna go spend some time to go over the funds and the associated expenditures.

The before I do that, let me just tell you the overall number.

The FY25 expenditures, the actuals was 1.09 billion dollars for the FY26 current budget, it's 1.18 billion for the estimate is 1.67 billion, and for our proposed FY27 budget is 1.25 billion dollars.

The breakdown of the 1.25 billion dollars, 1.2 billion of that is from the general fund, and this is the 97% of the expenditures, and this supports HPD's operations.

It includes personnel, personnel, patrol, investigation, and administrative services.

The police special services fund.

The expenditures here is 10.1 million or 0.8%.

It's used for restricted purposes such as the joint law enforcement efforts, the task force that we have with the FBI and Secret Service and DEA, the traffic control, police training personnel training through the REOS program, and the uh deterrence of human trafficking.

The next fund is the auto dealers fund, 13.4 million.

This supports regulation and oversights of the auto dealers, storage lots, and towing operations, and the child safety fund that $3.3 million is to support the 600 600 more school crossing guards that's in the school districts in the city of Houston, and the asset forfeiture 9.1 million.

These are restricted use supporting the drug enforcement equipment and overtime.

Again, the forensic is zero for FY27, and the human trafficking recovery response is the 1960 is to be utilized to address the immediate emergency trafficking victims' short-term needs.

Next slide.

This slide goes into the expenditures by program.

This slide depicts expenditures funding by programs across all funds, of which general fund comprises of 97%.

The net increase of the $76 million or 7% is driven primarily by the 8% classified base pay, impacting salaries and benefits associated with the police meet and confer agreement.

Additional net variances are primarily attributed to interpartmental personnel assignments, including appointments, promotions, and organization restructuring.

I made it this far, and now I'm like talking, sorry.

The FY 27 proposed budget for all programs include 3.5% increase in civilian salaries and benefits associated with the Hope and Meet and Confer Agreement.

The next several slides provide a more detailed summary of each of HPD's programs.

I will highlight each program and reserve time at the end for questions related to the program budgets and performance and indicators.

Next slide.

Each command is responsible for the oversight and operations of patrol within the city of Houston.

As you can see, the uh response time for priority one call, FY26 progress, third quarter is five point seven five point seven minutes, and the priority two calls is 10.9 minutes, and uh as of May, the um those response times have gone down to 5.5 response time and 10.7 um minutes on response time, and the makeup of the uh general fund is the makeup of the patrol contributes 475 million dollars from the general fund, 3.4 million from the asset forfeiture, and the uh special police special services fund 1.5 million.

So that 480 is what is making up the funding sources for the police patrol.

Next slide.

The Homeland Security Events special events, the Homeland Security Special Event Programs leads in planning and coordination of activities associated with intentional acts of terrorism or natural declared emergencies.

This program also assists with the coordination of all special events within the city of Houston and staff's police resources for all city sponsored special events.

The um the funding for this comes from the general fund, the $54 million.

Police special is $2.2 million, and so for this fund is $56.5 million for the funding.

And the next slide.

This program is also responsible for the review and verification of all gang-related crimes in the Houston area.

And the chief mentioned that all of our NIBERS crime uh is down.

You can see for the the annual the NIBERS, the NIBER's crime against person that's currently down by six percent.

The NIBER's crime against property down by 25 percent, and NIVERS crime against society down eight percent, and the funding you can see from all the different sources that we have for the 254 million dollars that supports this program.

Next slide.

This is our airport system that consists of the IAH and the hobby, and includes also hobby.

Also, includes the Allington Field, consists of the 24-7 police patrol on the passenger screening checkpoints, boarding the gates, remaining in the terminals for breaches of security, weapons, bomb threats, and any other threats to the safety and security, and this is from the general fund, the 45 million dollars, and this we get reimbursed by the Houston Airport system.

Next slide.

This is a traffic enforcement.

This includes the DWI task force, the mobility response team, the motorcycle detail, our radar, our task force, and highway interdiction.

And this is uh from the general fund 29.6 million uh dollars, and this is supported by the Metro Mobility uh program.

And as a part of the measurements, we we're looking into visiting the area of reducing the percentage of the vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian frontality performance measures for FY27 as we look at more of these uh measurements.

Next slide.

Our next program is a joint processing center, and this is a shared service that's managed by Harris County, and it's responsible for the booking and processing of all prisoners arrested by the Houston Police Department.

And just a note on these measurements, HP HPD does not control the average processing time at the JPC for HPD arrest.

Next program.

Our next program is the training program, and it's responsible for the cadets doing their training at the police academy, recruiting applicants, conducting background investigations, and making recommendations regarding the suic regarding the suitability of the applicants, and continue education through in-service training for all the HPD employees.

And here just a note that on for the cadets, their salary was able to be increased by 10,000 from 42,000 to 52,000, and that was back in FY26.

And this has helped in our recruiting efforts.

The next slide.

Looking at one of the measurements that increased daily outreach for homeless communities and individuals for FY26 progress, third quarter, you see that 5,595 contacts.

But they are working on that.

The next slide, please.

For FY26 progress, uh third quarter, you see that 5.44%.

And that was when the um the information was downloaded, but now uh currently the rate is at 2% error rate, which is below that 3%, which is the standard certification uh rate.

Next slide, please.

This next program is our community outreach and victim services.

The community outreach and fit victim service programs are relational policing initiatives designed to facilitate public safety through the Greater Houston area.

Victim Services program provide resources and referrals for crime victims based on their specific needs.

Outreach programs focus on crime prevention, community service, youth service, and encourages positive interactions between law enforcement and the greater Houston community.

And our next slide, our last slide in the programs is our administrative services, and the administrative service provides the support for the for leadership and executive support, and this includes the Office of Executive Chief, operational support, legal services, risk management, and general services department.

And uh in here is also the um the reduction of that 1.5 million for the uh EPROL project.

And uh with that, I'm gonna pass it back to Chief Harding.

Thank you, ma'am.

Next slide.

So we'll touch on the three accomplishments that I want to highlight that I discussed earlier.

So this the slide in front of you, but we show this slide every year in the budget presentation.

It's also typically shown in other presentations.

But if you the blue lines are graduating cadets, red lines are attrition, and obviously, if you want to increase your manpower, you need the attrition to be lower than your graduating cadets.

One of the profound impacts of our new contract, as you guys know, was number one ten thousand dollar pay raise for cadets, which helped us immensely for individuals that were going to other police departments because their pay was higher while they're in the academy, and then the raise to classified officers as we go through the five-year contract makes us more competitive with every other major police department and smaller or mid-sized police department in the state.

And so if you look at the far right FY26 up until April, you will see that our graduating cadets is significantly higher than our attrition, and this was pulled right up until the end of March.

And we just graduated class of 69 people last week.

So I can tell you we are officially over 5,400 classified for first time in a very long time.

If you go all the way to the left side, you'll see fiscal year 09.

Uh we had a large net gain in classified officers between graduate cats and attrition.

This year, depending on how many of these cadets that just graduate Tuesday get off probation, our net gain for the year will be 150 or above, which is vital to public safety in the city for obvious reasons.

You know, we we've discussed countless times.

We kept the same manpower since the 1990s until last year and this year, right?

Now we're starting to gain officers, and there's a variety of benefits to that besides just the obvious of more cops is a safer city.

It allows us to staff divisions that have been short staffed for a long time.

It allows us to create new initiatives that we wanted to do to help our officers and the citizens we serve.

Next slide.

So again, we're over 5,400 now.

We added 320 classified officers, which is the largest net gain in 17 years.

Our current cadet classes in the academy today are at 79 and 76, as well as two lateral cadets, and then our NeoGov applications, which, if you know any job you apply for at the city, you have to apply through NeoGov.

Our NeoGov applications have increased 47% year over year since the first year of the contract.

So just a reminder, July 1 of 26 will begin the second year of the contract.

And our academy classes grew from pre-raise averages of 41 to 60 to post-race classes ranging from 72 to 81 recruits.

Next slide.

So as we talk about adding more people to the street and being able to implement some projects that we've wanted to for a long time.

The one I'd like to highlight today.

Actually, I'll touch on patrol first.

So operational changes in patrol.

I apologize.

Four 10-hour shifts in patrol back in 2022 when I was the assistant chief over Patrol Region 1.

And most patrol officers until that well, all patrol officers until that time worked five, eight-hour shifts, two days off, regardless of what shift or what your days off were.

We started to test four tens for a variety of reasons.

More officer wellness, see if we could decrease response times, decrease different metrics, injured on duty, use of force, used to due to fatigue, a variety of factors.

So when we started to add these bodies last year and this year, it began to give us enough bodies to fully staff our five largest patrol stations to allow us to go to 410.

So in January of this year, early January, mid-January, late January.

Our four biggest stations that did not have four tens now have four tens.

So we're at seven stations now where the patrol officers work four tens.

There's a few stations that have a couple hybrids.

They may have five or six individuals that work five eighths per shift to help cover that gap.

But the three days off is showing to have tremendous benefits for our patrol officers and our department and our budget.

Another day off is another day of rest, so decreased fatigue.

So when you work five eighths, the overlap is one hour.

So early side is six to two, late side is seven to three, and then evening shift would start 2 p.m.

to 10 and then 3 p.m.

to 11.

When you work 410s, you have a wider or a longer overlap of either two or three hours, depending on where you are.

That overlap allows us to spend less overtime.

And the way that works out on less overtime is you get fewer late calls because you already have another shift that's been on for an hour or two.

So when you work five eighths, it's not uncommon for in the last hour of your shift to you get uh get one or two calls for service.

If it's a complicated call for service, it's going to take you well over your shift.

When you have an overlap of two to three hours, you're way less likely to get that call.

Somebody that came on two hours or three hours ago is more likely to get the call.

So we're seeing a decrease in overtime.

There's also early indications that we have less time burned by officers at these stations.

That's a added benefit for a number of reasons.

One, more officers on the street, two, improve officer wellness.

The fewer our people call in tells me the happier they are and the healthier they are.

Next slide.

Operational support division.

So as we talk about things we want to do to help our officers and help better serve the citizens of Houston.

The operational support division was stood up this year.

We started with evening shift.

They've been online since October and November, and now we are rolling into night shift.

Night shift is currently in training, and what operational support is it's expanded tactical capabilities to support patrol and investigation.

So inside this division, you have our special response team, which used to be our narcotics tactical team.

They support services of high risk search warrants and high risk arrest for investigations.

Our patrol support team, which is the newly developed team, which is they work for 10 hour shifts also, and then our patrol canine is rolled into that division also.

They used to be in tactical operations and now they're in operational support.

The reason for that move, light and load on the captain at tactical operations, as well as our canine officers work hand in hand every single shift with our operational support, our patrol support team.

Our patrol support team enhances patrol effectiveness through tactical and technological support.

So these officers are two-man units, they're spread out all throughout the city, and they are not in the calls for service loop.

What they do is volunteer and respond to some of our most high risk calls with improved technical technological equipment, so drones, camera systems, and the like, things that take experienced and more hours of training, and also have a higher degree of required oversight based on federal and state law, as well as some other tactical capabilities that the average patrol officer doesn't have.

And the idea is for them, they go through an extensive 10 to 12 week training process, both with the equipment but also in tactics.

And the idea is for them to show up, help these patrol officers on these high risk scenes, minimize the use of force used against the suspects.

The least amount of force we can use to take anybody into custody is obviously preferred, and the addition of these tools and these officers on the street with this training, we hope over time, as we as the data plays out, we'll do just that.

Summer will come on or night shift will come online in summer of 26.

I said they're in their training right now.

Each shift is about three sergeants and 20 officers.

And with that, take any questions.

Thank you all both for the thorough presentation.

It's a big budget.

I appreciate the going through it with the fine-tooth comb and the detail.

I wanna start uh slide six.

Plans to eliminate the gap.

Community outreach victim service, seven vacancies that um are being frozen.

Is that what uh the word that was used for the upcoming fiscal year?

They're not being eliminated, but they're being frozen?

Correct.

Okay.

And these are classified positions?

No, sir.

No.

These are civilian positions, correct.

So all of the FTEs in that the eight million are all civilian, no classified.

Okay, that is one thing that I hear a lot about.

You know, the community outreach, the community liaisons, the value uh that folks find in neighborhoods from having presence at civic clubs and community events.

So these positions being civilian, how is it going to impact um the community engagement side overall?

Having them frozen for uh one fiscal year.

In the community outreach and victim services, those seven civilians were not doing any community outreach.

So they were well, actually that I shouldn't say that, because some of them were from our DART program.

As we rotated more classified officers over into our DART program to make sure that we staffed it.

We also our DART program used to be funded through ARPA funds, and when the ARPA funds eliminated or were eliminated by no stretch of the imagination, did we want to get rid of the DART program?

So we absorbed it into the general fund and found cost savings and other places to fund that.

So the civilian positions that are missing will not impact our community relations at all.

In fact, and I know this question will come up, so I'll just discuss it now.

But as we have received several different questions about this past year, our community affairs division going away in air quotes.

So there was 71 allocated positions in community affairs.

And the idea behind the community affairs division, a very long time ago, 70s and 80s when it was developed, was to have a group of people that could liaise with the community, especially communities didn't feel did not feel like they were represented by the officers of the Houston police department.

As I mentioned at the beginning, we are one of the most diverse departments in the country now.

Seventy-one allocations of individuals who they may go out to community events, but our idea of community policing is that all 5,400 of us are liaisons.

So someone who goes to a community event, and the only time you may ever see them at that community event, and then you never see them again because they go back to headquarters is not our idea of community policing.

So as we took the officers assigned to community affairs, we kept a core group called community engagement union or field operations run under chief executive assistant chief Guzman, a lieutenant of sergeant and eight officers.

The others were put out into the stations in the areas that they worked in the most.

If you're gonna have somebody at your community event, we want it to be an officer that you are very likely to see on a regular basis.

The other advantage of gaining classified officers year in and year out, the eventual goal of any police department would be that your officers have enough downtime to significantly engage in the community they serve.

When you're short officers, all our folks do is run from call to call to call.

They barely even have time to stop and get a drink.

They definitely don't have time to stop and visit with the store owner or the shopkeeper or whoever that is beginning to change.

As we are getting more and more officers on the street, it's allowing again response times are down.

The more officers we get on the street, the more it will allow our officers to engage with the community outside of the regular calls for service.

Thank you for the answer there.

Thank you, Vice Chair, and thank you both for the presentation.

Excuse me.

Um and I had questions about that too.

So just to clarify, so there's the victim services division, and then there was the community affairs division that in this current fiscal year we allocated roughly nine million dollars for um.

So how is that money?

How has that money been reallocated in the department?

Did that money just go with the officers as they were kind of reallocated to the different divisions?

Correct.

So all of the salaries and benefits of the officers that were in community affairs were moved to whatever stations or commands they were moved to.

And then the supplies budget, the miscellaneous budget was rolled into the community engagement unit, which was that core group that stayed from community affairs, it now reports to field operations.

So have we had to allocate any other funding to accommodate this change in policy other than just shifting?

No, ma'am, not right now.

Um, for the cadet classes, I'm happy to hear that we're getting more competitive and getting more officers.

How many officers are we still short?

I know that's a hard number to answer, but it is roughly.

There's been a variety of manpower studies done over the years by a variety of people.

There was one time where it was one was commissioned by the city, one was commissioned by a labor group, there was another one's commissioned by an outside entity, and they all come up with various numbers.

And these are all of these studies are anywhere from eight to ten to twelve years old, and they all come around the 65 to 7, 6500 7,000 number.

I think the answer for me is we can never have enough as long as we can stay within budget.

And that is another trick with the budget as attrition decreases, which is a blessing, your overtime should decrease as well because you were as the year goes on and we constantly look at the budget and try to make adjustments in cost centers or other programs to add to overtime as needed.

Again, we're looking at that bottom line budget all the time.

So as we increase officers, we should be decreasing the amount of overtime spent.

Like I said, we were down 22% this year in overtime spent by dollar amount and 27% an hour spent.

So as we increase the number of officers, we hope that that overtime spending would decrease to stay at the bottom line also.

And how many cadet classes are scheduled for FY27?

Five.

And if we found funding for an additional sixth class, is that something that HPD has the resources to support?

It is very difficult.

It's difficult logistically, it's difficult financially.

But yes, if we had the number of applicants that were qualified to fill sixth class, the more the merry.

Um for the human trafficking revenue fund, you mentioned that there was a decrease in that fund.

Um, why was there a decree or is there projected to be a decrease in that fund?

Uh it's for the um for the uh seizures and a specific for that um that activity.

Meaning uh it's we we the seizures of assets uh from related to the the uh human trafficking could only be used for the the uh uh the victims, and so it's so it's it I think that fund was just set up like last year.

So we're just rejecting fewer seizures than right, okay.

Yes, yeah.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you both for the presentation.

Um I understand the budget has to grow as salary increases come into effect just because most of uh the budget is salary right.

Um noticed out of the big book.

I'm gonna ask you some questions out of the big book that we got.

The of course the budget is growing, but the rate of increase is growing as well.

24, it was at about four percent, twenty-five, it was almost five percent, twenty-six just over six percent, twenty-seven almost eight percent.

So, do you foresee that continuing because if it does, it you know has significant implications uh several years out, you know, as far as the overall budget, but do you expect the rate of increase to continue in the next few years?

If that makes sense, yeah, just like uh the contract for the meet and confer uh last year for the classified was 10 percent, and the FY 20 uh 7 is 8 percent, and I believe next year it's uh is six percent.

So it's it's gonna be you know, the with the contractual obligations that will be increasing.

And what about after the six percent?

Do you have that information?

Yeah.

Uh for the uh effective July first, 2028 would be another six percent, and then July 2029 is six point five percent.

Okay, that's the uh classified meet and confer contract.

Okay, thank you for that.

Um let me ask you about administrative services.

There's there's a page and it's page 51.

If you if you have the book, you may not have it with you, page 51, uh business area 1000, administrative services.

It breaks down the number of civilian classified cadet that are assigned to administrative services, and um for FY 27, the projection is 165 classified under administrative services.

Two years ago, FY25, it was 83.

So it looks like on paper, maybe maybe I'm reading this wrong.

It looks like on paper we've got more classified officers um assigned to administrative services.

Is that correct or it's correct by title, but not administrative work.

So the new division I discussed, operational support.

Okay.

They fall under right now in the organizational chart, they're under the chief of staff, Chief Collee.

And so that comes out of the chief's office.

So those bodies are listed classified as administrative services.

They are doing the absolute opposite of administrative work.

Okay, great.

So they're they're on the street, they're not behind a desk somewhere.

Okay, thank you for that for clarification.

I'll go back into the queue.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Uh thank you for the presentation.

Uh, appreciate uh really identifying how we've been able to catch up with the uh you know the the officers that are leaving compared to those that are coming in, because I think my first year the the chief was saying that um 10 years prior, there was we had less officers at that time than what we had 10 years prior to that.

So uh it's good to see that, but I do want to just get back to a little bit of what my vice chair was uh was discussing on community outreach.

Um I can appreciate that every officer is doing community outreach, but it quite frankly I don't agree with it.

Um I think there's some things that need to be very specific, very intentional training as well.

Uh the police activity league is one that I think is you know not everything has to be reactive, but there's proactive law law enforcement work that should be done as well.

Um and so I want to push back just a little bit because as I've looked at the performance measures, um for FY25, there's a 163,000 uh in uh community outreach program participation.

Uh currently in the Q3 it's 83.

So this is a decrease in that actual community participation.

Um we start looking at uh PIP meetings, 4700, uh now thirteen hundred.

Um and again, I think the opportunities to be able to, and you were speaking to it, be being able to have those interactions um with more officers, so being able to stop and talk to the dry cleaners or talk to the you know the restaurant owner uh but even more intentional actual education on reporting how to report certain things one of the things that I've been uh huge advocate of is how how do we make sure especially our Spanish speaking community uh how do they find ways to partner with uh with our local law enforcement and so um I I can appreciate saying that every officer will be doing community outreach but I also um quite frankly because the work that y'all do unfortunately can't do it in in that capacity uh so I would I would encourage you all even more so chief to identify how we could reach folks on social media uh there is a um a pretty good platform that was really speaking to all kinds of communities not just one particular community but all kinds of communities went um on what to report DMV uh or uh yeah um whenever folks would break into vehicles uh how to report that um and so having more of those uh neighborhood uh meetings um are important and you know just seeing the the decrease in engagement uh it's it's it raises some red flags to me that's where trust breaks down and um community policing is important to me uh it's it's something that I think Houston was always prided in across the country um and as we disconnect from that building that trust back is makes just makes it so much more difficult so I don't know if you have any comments to that but again I just push back a little bit with that every law enforcement officer every police officer on the on the streets is going to be able to do that community uh community outreach I do have response so thank you thank you for your comments I would like to point out that every station still has the numbers on this slide part of it has to do with the way we were tracking the numbers as we looked at the community affairs division and the way the numbers are being tracked and the way the interactions were being tracked there were some numbers that I found to be unrealistic as we change the way we track numbers within community events or community engagement unit I believe we're tracking the numbers more accurately right now I do also want to point out that our PIP meetings have not gone away our PIP meetings per station still exist our citywide PIP meetings still exist we used to do the citywide PIP at the union every single PIP meeting and one of the complaints we heard when we go out to town halls or community events was that it's just not reasonable to get to it.

So now we travel around the city every every PIP meeting is in a different place around the city to allow different communities to to come and hear the presentation and engage with our command staff our differential response teams at our stations are still doing community work.

So while what I said is accurate we hope and expect every officer to be a liaison of the community we still have sections or units within every police station every division that are doing community work they're just not in the community affairs division.

That makes sense um one if I can just let this last question the as that division was taken away still doing it right uh the the thought process was there'd be boots on the on the on the ground right um do y'all have a number or uh are they participating in calls for services as well those folks that were taken out I have several you know as a former staffer I know a lot of these folks that were doing some of this work um and I just want to have an understanding that those that were taken out of uh this more direct kind of interaction um are they rolled into calls for services as well or are they doing some other other duties?

It varied per individual some went to most went to a differential response team or a um community engagement unit at a division some did go to the calls for service loop okay thank you.

Council member flickinger.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Response time.

I look at your slide, page 15.

Looks like the response time actually got worse for level one calls.

When the data was pulled at the end of April, that response time is uh as it stands today.

It is down at five two nine I want to say.

Okay.

Um, overtime.

Joint processing.

Is that still causing issues?

Yes.

Okay.

Um some of the officers have told me they can spend as depending on when they go, it is multiple hours that they're spending down there.

So hopefully the county can do something to uh resolve that.

Um also with the overtime.

Um there was uh an article came out in the chronicle, so please correct me if it's wrong.

It is the chronicle.

Umficer Davis, I know here last year had been reassigned from traffic after he'd gotten about 170,000 in overtime.

The chronicle states that he had two other issues with overtime previously.

Uh one in 2012 where he got suspended 30 days, and then 2013 where he got suspended 15 days.

Do you know if that's correct?

I do believe that to be correct.

Okay.

Um how is it looked at when somebody has multiple issues with the same same type of uh uh you know infraction like that?

Uh I mean, I would think one of the things maybe the department would say is that you're not allowed any overtime ever given that he's apparently abused the system on multiple occasions, there was a feeling of that potentially, and that is why he is now where he is.

Okay, okay, thank you very much.

One question I wanted to ask on slide 19, which is the traffic enforcement slide, the KPI reduced percentage of vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian fatalities in 20 FY25 was a 2.2 annual percentage decrease.

We haven't seen a KPI for that since an actual percentage number.

Uh my concern is that we have a lot of vehicular pedestrian um incidents, deaths, accidents.

Why did we see that number or that KPI drop off?

Oh, you mean on the NA for Yes, yes, correct?

I'm not sure why it's not there.

I can tell you exactly what the the reduction in both accidents and fatalities are right now.

We have an eight percent reduction in minor and major crashes and an 11% year-to-date reduction in fatality so far.

But I will get you an answer for why that's not on there.

I would appreciate it.

I know that uh we hear a lot about people getting struck uh either pedestrian cycling, uh we hear about the major accidents, and so that would be helpful to know um on that specific KPI.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Councilmember or Vice Mayor Pro Tem Peck.

Thank you.

Um, one last question.

The program to allow retired officers to come back and work on an hourly basis.

Can you give us a little more detail about why we're eliminating that?

It was a source of income that we could eliminate to try to close the gap without getting rid of any classified officers and without getting rid of or laying off any any civilian officers, right?

So as we look to try to close the budget gap and further align budget shortfalls with our performance metrics and what we want to provide to the citizens, it was a fund that that's that would allow us to save a million and a half dollars without affecting anybody who's a full-time employee.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh following up on what Councilmember Martinez asked about uh the community um liaisons.

We we have heard uh repeatedly from the Asian community, the African American community, LGBTQ committee uh community that they would like to have their liaisons back.

I understand maybe 75, you know, officers aren't required for that sort of thing, but have y'all given thought to paring it down so that you know uh you've you've got fewer officers that are still liaison liaisoning with uh with that those communities.

We have, we still have an LGBTQ liaison.

She's assigned to Central Division DRT, but she still serves as a liaison as well.

My question would be: what are they looking to gain from reaching out to that specific one human being as opposed to the individuals that serve that community or the captain of that division?

Well, I don't know that they specifically know the individuals working on a given shift at a given time, but I believe without speaking for them, uh that there was a comfort level and a level of trust.

I'm happy to try to bring some of those folks in to visit with you or someone else within the department if if y'all would be willing to do that.

Absolutely.

Yeah, my answer would be I would hope that level of trust would be established with the individuals working at that station, wherever wherever they are in the city.

Yeah, okay.

I appreciate that.

Um the operational support division sounds like a great idea.

Um I'm wondering about other sort of specialized uh uh units.

Uh for instance, we still continue to get a lot of noise complaints throughout the city.

And um sometimes it it seems like they don't have all the equipment that uh they might need.

Um so you know, just to highlight that, uh, that there continue to be those complaints, and hopefully if if we can beef up at all enforcement of those violations, uh, which as I mentioned occur throughout the city, that would be a good thing.

Also wanted to ask you about uh mental health response.

I know that uh you guys touched on that a little bit, and um reference was made to citywide mental health crisis CIT.

Does that refer to the specially trained officers patrolling at any given time?

It does.

It does, okay.

And do you know uh at any given time how many of those units we have patrolling the city?

Are you referring to the cert units that's one officer and a clinician or a crisis intervention trained officer?

How about both?

We have over 4,000 crisis intervention trained officers.

I can't remember the class we started with years ago.

Luckily, the Houston police department was on the forefront of crisis intervention training and de-escalation with people in crisis.

And is that now a T-COL requirement for for okay, great?

Uh the other specialized uh teams.

The cert teams that are a clinician and an officer respond to as many calls as they can that their workload allows, I would say, and so there are times where you have a variety or I should say a lot of CIT calls that could benefit from a cert unit, and there just aren't enough of them.

Oftentimes there'll be a phone consultation.

We can use the core pro or we were using the core program, which is a tele-appointment with a uh clinician, which had some success, but we're gonna move it to a cell phone because it was on iPads, and now we all have city cell phones, but yeah, the mental health calls are a very high frequency, and we've done a great job in Harris County, the city of Houston of trying to divert as many as we can, understand that patience is what's required for someone that's in crisis, and to do everything we can to get them the help they need, and I'm very proud of what the department has done over the decades and leading the charge of understanding that being in crisis is not a crime.

So if you are a danger to yourself or others, we're there to get you help, nothing else.

And and I applaud that, and I've personally seen um uh a mental health incident handled with uh with great care and discretion by uh one of your sergeants and and actually uh a patrol officer before that, and and and I should have noted his name and sent uh uh you know a combination commendation letter on him, but but no, I applaud that and the the state requirement that that that training be mandatory uh of our cadets.

So I want to come back to this and I'll go back in the queue.

Thanks.

Uh Councilmember Ramirez.

So Chief on the 419 emancipation facility, I understand the homeless outreach team will be stationed there.

Will HPD be receiving any reimbursements at all for the officers being on site or incur any additional costs at all?

No.

No to both.

Great.

Thank you for that.

And then on slide 22, employee services, wellness, um, I saw on the previous uh plan to eliminate the gap.

There's a six FTEs that will be frozen for that.

Um and then in the budget book itself, the count from 26 estimate goes from 72.8 to 27 budget 58.

Um this is in the the big budget book on page 54.

For the FTEs by program breakdown, um, that drop in the count.

I'll I'll just say it goes from 72.8 from the FY26 estimate to 58 and the FY27 budget.

Is that the FTEs?

Correct.

Which page are you on in the big book?

54.

Okay, for some reason ours doesn't match up.

But I will get you a written answer.

Ours, not sure why.

Oh, that's okay.

But we we will get you an answer and write it to that question.

Yeah, we'll get that.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

And then we're back to Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Chair.

Um just to finish up on the mental health uh topic.

We think very highly of the crisis call diversion aspect of 911 that can keep people out of the criminal justice system that that don't need to be there.

And uh, concerned that um funding considerations might reduce uh the staffing 24-7 to handle those calls.

Do you feel that there's adequate staffing 24-7 to uh handle those kinds of calls through 911?

At the crisis diversion at the heck, that does not fall under us.

I don't I can look into it and give you an answer.

Look, we can never have enough staffing for for mental health.

Okay.

Um let me ask you about overtime.

So FY27 budget um uh projects that over time, if I understand this correctly, overtime will decrease 22 percent over the fiscal year.

Is that sound about right?

The allocated money is decreased by 22 percent.

Okay, all right.

Um, can you can you tell us what sort of operational changes, what's going to be different this coming fiscal year that will bring that number down?

Well, we hope to bring the number down, but I can't guarantee that we will.

And in the past, the general fund classified over time has been 14 million dollars.

This year it's being bumped up to over 21.

And that 14 million, I will tell you right now is taken up by holidays and the Houston Airport system right off the bat.

That 14 million dollars is gone immediately.

And airport, do we get an interfund transfer from them?

Okay.

Everything at the at both airports, salaries, vehicles, everything is reimbursed by Haas, but it's that general fund.

So, the airports and holidays, if you remember the council was kind enough to add two more holidays to city um city holidays.

So there's now 13 holidays.

Six of which the days vary throughout the year in terms of day of the week, you know, as the calendar year moves on.

Once you get past those two, all operational overtime until this budget, adding the 6.5 comes from savings from other places.

The addition of the 6.5, I can't really anticipate.

I mean, I would tell you that historically, yes, we're going to spend more than that.

For instance, last budget year, we spent $39 million in general fund classified overtime.

This year we're projected to spend about $30 million, right?

So you're down nine million dollars.

I understand the tendency to say, why wouldn't you budget the same you spent last year?

Well, had we done that last budget cycle, we would have been $9 million over in that overtime account, and we would have had to move it around.

Does that make sense?

I we're trying to move the budget closer to what allocations are, but oftentimes the allocations are very difficult to anticipate.

For instance, this year, not all would we didn't have any weather events except for one, a winter storm in January that we had to deal with, or maybe February.

We had no hurricanes the year before we had hurricanes.

So there's a variety of issues that come up throughout the year, global affairs.

This past year we spent a lot of money on protests for a couple different uh causes that were impacted by global affairs that really had nothing to do with us as a city of Houston, it just had to do with the fact there was people in our city that wanted to express their first amendment right to protest, and we're happy to support that.

So we spent more money in that bucket this year, and so we're just constantly trying to play the play the balance game.

So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that's all the money and overtime I'm gonna spend this year because I can't guarantee you.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Is there anyone else on the queue?

It's just me.

All right, so let's let's finish up here.

So to your point, I'm glad you pointed this out when we uh adopt additional holidays, that means overtime increases because if you're a police officer and you're you're having to work a holiday, that's overtime pay.

Yes.

Okay.

Um just just to make sure folks understand if an officer calls in sick and another officer has to come in and take their place, or if they take vacation time, does that result in additional overtime or not?

When an officer calls in sick, there's not another officer that comes in to replace them.

Our staffing per station per shift per district is done in a manner in which there is a certain number of allowable, we call them spots in the book because it's spots to be off, right?

So let's say your shift has five spots of vacation or time burned, that shift.

The staffing is done in a manner to which you understand and assume those five spots are going to be filled every shift because people want to enjoy their time off, and then there is a little bit of overage baked in for people that call in for unplanned circumstances.

They're sick, sick child, whatever the case may be.

So at the Houston Police Department, if you work in central division one district and you call in sick, we do not order somebody in for overtime.

That is one of the ways that we control overtime the best we can.

The other officers in that district pick up the slack.

All right.

And and it's just a given that department wide, you're gonna have a certain number of officers who call in sick on a given day.

Yes, sir.

And uh, you know, or take you know, take off for some approved uh cause.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

And last subject I'll talk uh ask you about is we've visited a little bit about rapid scan DNA uh machine, possibly at uh the joint processing center.

Um does that sound like something if if we were able to find uh part of the money or all of the money, um that some sounds like something that the police department would support?

Yes, I think any tool or piece of technology that increases the speed at which we can catch suspects, we're all for.

Yeah, and and just uh so everyone knows that that sort of uh uh instrument can be like um taking somebody's fingerprint entering it into a database and then when a match is found, some other crime, some other agency, uh, you know that that's a good thing.

Uh but that's what a rapid scan DNA instrument can do, as I understand it.

Is that right?

That is also my understanding, but yeah, I would refer to Dr.

Stout for that.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you.

All right, Chief and Interim CFO Tran, thank you all so much.

We will now move to public speakers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our first public speaker, Laura Gallier.

Thank you.

I've gotten a lot of doxing about a question I asked yesterday of the fire department, so I'm hoping that I can ask questions out of curiosity of HPD.

On page 19, there was a KPI that almost doubled the number of a counter encounters for traffic enforcement.

And I just wanted to mention that y'all have heard a lot from the community about how we'd actually like fewer uh encounters for traffic, particularly for non-safety or minor traffic stops, such as expired registration, window tinning, crack in the windshield, something that doesn't actually impact public safety.

So I was curious as to why that KPI increased.

The chief said that more cops is a safer city, and I just want to also mention that other departments create community safety as well.

We heard people talking about how the libraries create community safety in a different way, right?

By making people have resources.

I mean, safety is really about do you have access to access to the resources that you need?

And so I just wanted to mention that more cops is not the only way to make a safer city.

Um also um the mayor's podcast and also the chief said that all of the HPD at protest is um coming out of overtime, and I think it's realistic to expect there to be more protests this coming year, and I don't think it should be funded from overtime, and also they're extremely overstaffed.

I invite all of you to come to one.

You'll see a lot of people like me who are not scary.

Um there's not really any particular danger happening at these protests, and the police presence is overwhelming.

Um, there's more police than there are citizens, and so that would be a way to save a lot of money in an austerity budget.

My last comment is that there are two million dollars in the district service funds that are paid to HPD for overtime and flock and other things.

And I was wondering if we can get a complete accounting of where extra money to HPD is in the budget, besides the district service funds and the HPD budget.

Those are all good questions and and points, and we will be following up with you on the KPI and the uh additional non-CDSF funding.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Terry Chen.

Thank you, Council members that are still here and staff.

Chief Harden mentioned crime is down according to all of their metrics.

But I just want to ask whether crime is actually down or people just not reporting it because immigrant communities are scared of the police now.

A bigger police budget does not mean more safety, especially when immigrant residents avoid calling 911 now.

They don't report abuse or crashes or cooperate as witnesses because they fear that HPD will contact ICE on them because of civil administrative warrants.

I talk to community members every day and hear their stories and they're terrified of the police.

Children no longer look at the police and like with admiration, instead, they're like, oh, are they gonna take away my family members?

The Cron just reported that HPD that the HPD audit of overtime shows that the majority of officers uh couldn't verify their hours.

HPD paid 37 million in overtime to 129 officers in five years.

So HPD shouldn't be allowed to continue spending overtime when the overtime can't even be accounted for.

Metrics such as police staffing numbers or the numbers of outreach attempts made to unhouse communities and individuals tells us nothing about whose lives are improved by this budget.

What evidence shows that adding more money to police patrols will make immigrant communities safer rather than increasing fear for simply living their lives like going to school, taking their children to school, going to church, going to work or grocery shopping.

Can you redirect funds from patrol expansion into other resources such as language access or victim services?

And lastly, I wanted to uplift two things that Councilmember Flickinger said.

One, if officers are found to abuse the overtime system, they shouldn't be allowed to use it.

And two, he asked the controller whether the World Cup could help with the budget deficit.

And I thought this was a great point.

I wanted to bring this up because tourism demand is way underperforming, and it's because of this collaboration with ICE.

Nobody wants to come to Houston and celebrate and like see how beautiful our city is, what we have to offer.

They do the diversity of its people.

And the according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, about 70% of Houston hotels say bookings are coming in slower than expected.

And we know why.

People are scared to come here.

This is a huge missed opportunity in being able to help our budget.

So I just want to say that there are ways that we could be spending this money better.

Thank you.

Thank you, Terry, for your engagement and your comments.

And we will be following up with you on your questions.

Next, we have Suzette Flores.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for sticking around.

And allowing me to speak.

My name is Suzette Flores.

I am a lifelong Houstonian.

I live in District H.

I love it there.

And I um I use the Harrisburg Trail quite a lot.

It's a gorgeous trail.

Um, but I have actually felt more threatened and intimidated by the overwhelming presence of police there.

Uh it's a very small trail, so I don't understand why there's so many cops all the time.

Um and I have seen more police presence at the entrance and surrounding areas.

More often than not, the police is harassing unhoused community members, and I am not sure if these are the officers that are trained for mental health crises.

But alas, the trail is frequented by mostly elderly community members and families.

I don't believe the police presence helps us feel more safe.

My community and I are simply existing by moving our bodies, and we should not feel punished for doing that.

Over policing our trial and community is not acceptable, and an increased budget for the HPD does not and will not make us feel more safe.

We are fearful because HPDA is known to escalate encounters, and it is known to profile community members like myself and the elderly.

And they also collaborate with ICE to detain us.

I don't believe our money should go towards an already massive HPD budget.

And if you're truly worried about making our trail and park more safe, an increased budget to the parks and recreational department could help.

Another alternative would be increasing support for unarmed medics, trained in behavioral health, and on scene medical assistance.

This would be a much better use of our money.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, and I will uh share your feedback on the trail with South Central.

Doug Smith.

Didn't realize I've been sitting there that long.

They are going to four tens uh on as far as uh the offices are concerned.

Is overtime based on a weekly total or a daily total?

I don't know the answer to that, but if if it's on a daily total, they're generating a whole lot more overtime than they would otherwise.

So I'd like to check on that.

Uh regarding the overtime at the airport, I think when there is a report that shows X amount of dollars spent in overtime for the police department budget, they should put an asterisk on that showing the amount that is coming from the airport and indication that it's all reimbursed from the airport because that's not done right now.

I think that's really important to do that.

Uh under their department short-term goals, there are a couple of uh things that I'd like to have understand.

Uh they want to reduce the number of traffic facilities uh below the average for the last five years.

Could you get me uh the statistics of what the fatality rates were for the last five years?

And then the clearance rates, the same thing clearance rates for group A bilet crimes.

Uh regarding um administrative services uh increased 26 percent uh this year, according to the or they're proposing 26 percent.

And I find it really interesting under traffic enforcement, it's only 2.3% of the total police department budget.

And I don't know about the rest of you, but I certainly feel there's a more need for traffic enforcement given the way people drive in the city, and uh it just is surprising to me that only 2% of the whole budget goes toward that.

Um then under asset forfeiture and police department special funds, nearly the entire overtime the entire uh personnel budget is overtime, and I don't understand why both of those have completely overtime as opposed to just regular uh budget.

It just doesn't make sense.

So if I could get an explanation on that.

And uh interesting thing on the asset forfeiture, the current budget for 26 was 9 million dollars, and they're estimating that they're gonna spend 5.7 million dollars, and the budget for 2027 again is nine million dollars.

That's just the opposite of zero-based budgeting.

They have reduced their expenditures, but yet they're given the whole amount that they had budgeted for this year.

And the same thing, I talked to Tran after the uh the planning department, same thing happened to them.

I questioned why is your why are you going so high this year?

She said, No, no, you're looking at the what we uh what are estimated versus what was but they did the same thing to the planning department.

So I think that uh who's ever doing the budgeting uh needs to take a look.

The question is why, if the estimate is 5.7 million, are they given a budget of 9.1 million for the coming year?

It's it doesn't make sense.

And last question is there are two departments, strategic operations and what's the other one, administrative services.

And these both sound like they could be staffed by uh civilians as opposed to classified uh to a great extent.

I just like a breakdown of the between those two departments, the civilian and classified uh employees, and that's it.

And you only have you have 15 minutes for your next meeting, so.

Well, hold on, uh because we've got Vice Mayor Pro Tempek.

Oh, okay.

Hi, thank you.

Um, your comment about overtime funding um and when we get reimbursed that we need to backtrack that out of the overtime funding.

Um, I completely agree with we need to really take a look at that.

That you know, if we're getting reimbursed, and it's still a service that we're offering, but we're getting reimbursed for that, and it's a neutral cost to the city.

It's definitely something that we need to look at and make sure that we're accurately showing our numbers there.

And I don't think that's happening right now.

So, can I go?

And yes, we will follow up with you on your questions.

Um is there anyone else who would like to address?

Okay, come on up.

Um, just state your name before you start your comments.

Hi, good afternoon, y'all.

Uh, thank you for letting me speak today.

Uh what I want to talk to you about the police budget is to ask a request that y'all uh cancel and uh decommission um all the flock cameras uh right now.

Uh Flock has about eleven hundred employees and approximately 80 to 90,000 uh units ALPRs across the nation.

There's about 3800 in the Houston area.

Uh the reason I say that is because if you recall in 2024, there was a pager and walkie talkie attack in Lebanon.

So about 4,000 people were injured and 42 people were killed because uh pagers and and uh walkie talkies were basically blown up across across the nation of Lebanon, also Syria.

So what I'm saying is that with the World Cup coming here, uh to the States, uh, you know what I mean?

Like Flock doesn't have enough people, they don't have enough people doing audits.

I don't even know if HPD or or HCSO are doing audits, whether it's software audits, firmware audits, and actual onsite audits to make sure uh these units aren't compromised.

So I'm just saying that's a national security risk that we should avoid and redirect all that money to make metro uh uh metro fares free.

So just make metro or free things arrive for everybody because we say we're a global city, let's act like it and let's let's start at the world cup, but let's let this be a thing that we continue on to have free free metro and we don't have eyes in the sky and you know Trump trying to target trans people like myself because you know what I mean.

Like tomorrow it could be like all right, let's target all the trans people, let's find all those cars.

So I I ask you to do that.

Yeah, thank you for being here and for your comments.

Thank you.

Felix, no, okay.

Hi again.

So I'm Sarah.

Um earlier uh was the library budget workshops, and they listed various locations.

So I strongly encourage all of you as city council members to go just next door to Houston Public Library and check out 1984 by George Orwell and start a book club and read it together.

Um how does more police on the street help with deeper community ties?

One point, it sounds as absurd as hearing HPD gets 1.2 billion dollars, and the people are the city, or is HPD the city getting 1.2 billion dollars?

I mean, please do not make communities safer or warmer.

Libraries do libraries welcome unhouse folks openly, and I've seen HPD cops sabotage homeless encampments numerous times in downtown, and I'm sure all of you have too.

And more police on the street means increased non-safety traffic stops that are obviously racialized.

Um is that the community outreach that Chief Harden was talking about?

Because I don't know where he disappeared to, if he doesn't want to hear what the people are saying, but talked about community outreach and connecting to community.

And another accomplishment that they forgot to list, um, just want to echo what my comrade Mo said is HPD's increased surveillance with Flock safety.

Um, you know, there's the guidelines that do exist for their surveillance system, but there has been no consequences for HPD officers when they continue to fail to document the reason why they're using Flock.

Um more police means more surveillance.

I don't trust HPD, neither should you, and nor do they deserve 1.2 billion dollars.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Good afternoon.

Um, couple questions uh, and I can submit them in the portal if they can't get answered now.

Um on the mayor's proposed budget, the DDSRF um Metro line on page 210 of the document of the PDF.

Um, there's a line that says 29.7 million to support HPD traffic enforcement program in general fund.

Just wanted they may have mentioned it here, but just wanted some clarity on what that number is as it sits within the the metro portion of the DDSRF.

Um, that was one question.

The second question was uh second one is a statement uh also supporting ending contracts with Flock.

Um I think we've seen this council uh end security contracts before, um, and I think it could save us a lot of money and definitely keep surveillance off of communities that are already heavily surveyed, uh surveilled.

And then um the last question I had was on behalf of someone.

So the um he mentioned there's a $7.3 million reduction in some civilian full-time employees.

Um wanted to see what the responsibilities of those employees were uh and if those responsibilities will then be transferred to like full-time employees, for example, um, as like that could end up leading over time to more overtime.

But um just wanting to know what those positions required, and then also um if those responsibilities are being passed on later into the department.

Um, how much more time do I have?

You're the last uh speaker, Felix.

So okay, great.

Uh one thing uh one other thing is the health department on Thursday talked about not enough attention or dollars going towards youth violence prevention.

Um it's listed under the quality of life priority um and the department of neighborhoods office of gang prevention and intervention continues to lose staff and budget dollars now at 600,000.

How do we reconcile scaling back youth antiviolence programs while describing public safety as a top priority?

Are the council members here today supportive of directing funds toward these small youth anti-violence programs as requested by directors?

Um and then how are payments for legal settlements tracked in the budget is a separate question.

You asked some great questions and made some good points.

Um, on the civilian uh reductions, they are all on slide twelve in terms of the departments and the amounts.

Or no, um slide six in terms of um those are all civilian uh employee FTEs.

So we can get you uh a more detailed breakdown of what those are.

I know a couple of us asked questions about that as well.

Um the metro reimbursement was 25 million from Metro PD to cover um some HPD traffic enforcement operations.

That's what you were talking about there and the budget, and then uh did you have a comment?

No, okay.

We'll we'll follow up with you on your others.

Great, and uh we'll make sure to submit those on the portal too.

Thank you.

Thank you for uh being here.

And uh that concludes our public speakers.

Uh so I want to thank everyone for all their engagement throughout our budget workshop series.

This was our last budget workshop.

The virtual budget town hall will be tomorrow, 6 p.m.

If you uh would like to engage um and hear a more detailed overview of the proposed changes, share your comments and feedback.

The public hearing for the budget will take place at 9 a.m.

here in council chambers.

That is Wednesday, June 3rd.

The council member submitted amendments will be done um as well on June 3rd, and then the vote on the budget will take place June 10th.

Thank you all so much.