Miami’s next police chief is a surprise pick that few, if any, saw coming — Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, leader of the fourth largest police department in the country and a man who forged a national profile the past year marching with police reform protesters after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Officials introduced Acevedo during a City Hall news conference Monday morning. He will take the department’s reins in about six weeks. He will be Miami’s fifth chief the past decade, an unusual high turnover for a large department of about 1,400 officers. He leaves Houston, a 5,400-person force with a more than $1 billion yearly budget, after a five-year stint.
In his opening remarks, Acevedo said a successful community policing hinges on leadership’s willingness to confront bad cops, an assessment of how he sees his role framed in frank terms not typically spoken from a Miami police chief.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.