THE EVER-DILIGENT HPOU PAC REMINDS Union members to vote in the May 24 runoff election, where some very important offices have two candidates but one choice the PAC believes will best service HPOU members and their families. Those runoff races on the ballot include the following with the PAC’s endorsed candidates listed here (click hereRead 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
HPOU – Jennifer, Chaplain, Shephard, & Color Guard, We very much appreciate the assistance and dedication honoring my husband, 1/14/22. And thank you also for the beautiful Lily plant. Everyone was very pleased with the whole service and graveside. Mrs. Carolyn Hann and Family Your kind and thoughtful expression of sympathy is deeply appreciatedRead more
Dear HPOU Family, On behalf of the “Walden” Family, please accept our deep gratitude for sending the lovely plant in honor and memory of our mother, Idabel, widow of retired HPD- Willard L. Walden. OUr family remains staunch supporters of our Houston Police family. Thank you, Linda Walden Taylor HPOU & the Board ofRead 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
The Houston Police Officers Union honored Sgt. Glen Tabor as its Patrol Officer of the Month for his leadership at a shooting scene in the wee hours of last Dec. 26. About 2:40 a.m. Officer Jonathan Garza was dispatched to a shot-spotter call in the 3500 block of Corder. Immediately upon arrival Officer Garza cameRead more
Law enforcement officers in Harris County responded with immediacy and special dedication on Jan. 23 when Precinct 5 Corporal Charles Galloway was shot and killed during a traffic stop. The suspect was not in custody. “Even worse,” Lt. Luis Menendez-Sierra said, “we had very little information to go on. . I contacted my squad andRead 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
BOSTON, DONALD Mr. Donald Boston passed away on Saturday, February 26, 2022, at the age of 92. He is the stepfather of Administration Manager Timothy Palmer of the Office of Community Affairs Division. BROWN, JOYCE M. Retired Data Entry Operator Joyce M. Brown passed away on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, at the age of 75.Read more
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.
Going into the new year, we always get excited and look forward to starting out fresh and getting things “in order”. This year was no different as we rang in the new year trying to stay positive. It can often be hard to look forward to a new year when we have so many big issues that we are facing as an organization.
First and foremost are the staffing issues that we are seeing at every station across the city. I worked New Years eve at Southeast and roll call consisted of about six people for early side and another six for late side for two districts. We were non-stop the entire night!
Our manpower issues are being exacerbated by the current Covid is spike. We had over 420 officers out as of New Year’s Day which is leading to dangerous situations on the streets. We must