THE MAY 24 RUNOFF ELECTION SAW ALL BUT ONE of the HPOU PAC’s endorsements win the nomination to represent their political party in the November General Election. The PAC now has readied its list of recommended candidates for that Nov. 6 event. Please PRINT HERE and keep it in mind as you prepare to vote forRead more
Sgt. Rhonda Williams and the HPOU, I was honored to receive a 2022 HPOU Scholarship. It was a pleasure to attend the Scholarship Breakfast and being acknowledged. Thanks to you and the Scholarship Committee, I will be attending the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 2022. I plan to major in meteorology. This scholarshipRead more
Thank you, for thinking of myself and family during this most difficult time on the loss of my father. SPO Swannah Wheeler Dearest Brothers & Sisters at the Houston Police Officers’ Union, Please understand how honored my late husband, Allen Tharling, was to have served with HPD. Some of the best years of hisRead more
Houston Police Officers’ Union, Thank you for sending such a beautiful plant. The Peace Lilly continues to be a reminder of Bert Preciado’s celebration of life and the 31 years he proudly served as a Houston Police Officer. Thank you for your love support. Forever grateful, Preciado Family The Houston Police Officers’ Union, ThankRead more
The family of Ronald House would like to thank you for the beautiful creston plant that was sent at the time of his memorial service. It was a kind and thoughtful gesture. With sincere thanks, The House Family To the member of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, Thank you so much for the beautifulRead more
The HPOU named Officers Jarid Sallee and Matt McMurtry as it’s Patrol Officers of the Month in the June general membership meeting. Officers Jarid Sallee and Matt McMurtry conducted a traffic stop on May 4th as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation. After the driver refused to provide ID, the officers requested that he exitRead more
The Houston Police Officers Union named Officer Ryan Pena the Investigator of the Month in the June general membership meeting. On Dec. 20 of 2020, while Officer Pena was still working the Child Fatality Unit, he was notified of a callout case regarding the death of a child. However, prior to going out, it wasRead more
The HPOU selected Officer Mark Leatherwood as its Patrol Officer of the Month, recognizing him in the May general membership meeting. Officer Leatherwood heard a K9 unit as dispatched about a 3SI activation while he was working another call. The 3SI activation was in from multiple aggravated robberies ir robberies that occurred in the ClearRead more
The Union named Detective Heather Everett as the Investigator of the Month in the May general membership meeting. Det. Everett was assigned an aggravated robbery in which two suspects entered the KFC on Memorial Drive on Jan. 31. The suspect with the gun was the lead suspect demanding money and ultimately placing the employees insideRead more
ABAD, CARMEN Mrs. Carmen Abad passed away on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, at the age of 79. She is the mother of Senior Police Officer Xavier Abad, assigned to the Recruiting Division and the mother-in-law of Senior Police Officer Johanna G. Abad, assigned to the Training Division. Services were held May 26 with burial inRead more
BUI, JIMMY Mr. Jimmy Bui passed away on Monday, April 11, 2022, at the age of 60. He is the father of Police Officer Kevin Bui of the Westside Division. Services were held April 23 with burial in Earthman Resthaven Cemetery. BUTLER, SGT. STANLEY L. (RETIRED) Retired Sergeant Stanley L. Butler passed away on Saturday,Read more
I am hearing a lot about this new “transformational change” classes that is provided by way of the Being First group. While I support anything that improves our department, let me be clear when I say this, no change will come to the rank and file without the command staff being direct, respectful, and transparent. I respect most of the command staff and understand that running the department is a difficult one. You must walk a tight rope, one that allows you to play politics with the community and still have the respect of the troops. I truly believe that you can do both and be an effective leader.
When I speak with the membership the top three issues are morale, discipline, and manpower. All three are tied together, as discipline and manpower are the two things that direc
Members,
As most of you know, the HPOU has tried to put a spotlight on the mental health of our department. Joe Gamaldi started out first Peer Support program with HOPA (Houston Officers Peer Assistance). Tim Whitaker has taken over the program in the last few years. The program has been working very well but we still have officers out there struggling. I have personally worked with 6 officers over the last two years who are dealing with either mental health issues or alcoholism issues or other addictions. The stressors of this job have obviously increased over the last few years with the civil unrest, the defund the police movement, the vilification of officers, and now the increased crime spikes and attacks on law enforcement.
With the stress of this job, we are seeing more
As many of you have heard, the Council unanimously approved the Meet and Confer contract with the City of Houston and the Houston Police Officers’ Union. This is very important to understand that in a time when heavy changes are coming to most police contracts, ours came away with very little regarding giving up rights after we informed the City that there were many misconceptions being spread by a few community activists. Officers questioned the 180 day rule for date of discovery versus date of incident in termination cases. This was an area that I had to rely on our attorneys for. All four of our attorneys as well as the contract attorneys we use all said that it would not have any real impact on out membership. San Antonio,
After four long months of going back and forth with the city, we now have a contract. I want to first thank all of those who made it out to vote. I am sad to say that only 1,600 of our 5,100 members voted in the ratification of the contract.
This is not unusual as we only had 1,891 vote in the last contract election. The contract did pass with a vote of 1,101 voting for and 510 voting against.
Many of you asked questions about why we do not have online voting for the contract. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that it is a labor contract, and we must be certain no one is voting for another person.
Secondly, we want officers to attend informational meetings or meet with someone who negotiated the contract before voting to make sure the officer received
Members, I know that we have all had a long couple of weeks. With Redbook closures, COVID, mandatory overtime, it is obviously not the start we wanted to a new year.
I don’t want to be a downer, but it appears that this may not end anytime soon.
Manpower and discipline are still the largest issues on the minds of our members. We work constantly to try to remedy the issues when they come into the office. Some we can fix and some we can’t.
Manpower will not be fixed for years, as it is getting harder and harder to find qualified applicants. We are continually working on the discipline issue and hope we get the department to understand that discipline is directly related to the morale of the department.
Until we fix these issues, we will continue to lose good officers.