AUSTIN, Texas — UPDATE:
On Tuesday, Jan. 23, Acevedo announced that he will not accept this position with the City of Austin. Read more.
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ORIGINAL STORY:
Former Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, who went on to serve as the top law enforcement officer in Houston and Miami in highly scrutinized tenures, has been hired by the City of Austin in a newly created role overseeing the police department.
He will be paid $271,000 as an interim assistant city manager. Acevedo will supervise the Austin Police Department (APD) and serve as a liaison between APD and the city manager’s office. Interim City Manager Jesús Garza said he created the position and hired Acevedo for the job to help lead the department through staffing challenges and continued reform in the aftermath of community demands following the May 2020 protests, among other issues.
Acevedo will be a “dedicated resource, advisor, counselor and connection to the [city manager’s] office,” Garza told KVUE Senior Reporter Tony Plohetski. Garza said the job is considered interim because the next city manager may want to hire their own executive team.
The position does not require city council approval and received no public input. Garza said that is consistent with how he has hired other executives, some of whom he said are “people I know and have tapped to help see if they can do the work that needs to be done.”
Interim APD Chief Robin Henderson will continue in her role. The City has not said when or how it plans to go about naming a permanent chief.
“He has the experience in this community, he knows people, people know him. But what has made this job manageable for me is that I have been in the community a long time, and I know the issues,” Garza said.
Garza emphasized that the new position is administrative, that Acevedo will not be working as a police officer and that Acevedo does not desire to be Austin’s police chief again.
The City is currently in the process of hiring a city manager and is expected to have a new executive in place later this year.
Friday’s announcement, made to the Austin City Council and the police union, comes the same week that officials in Aurora, Colo., said that Acevedo was leaving that city after serving as interim chief for several months. Acevedo said he was returning to Texas to be closer to his family.
Acevedo served as Austin’s police chief from 2007 to 2016 with mixed reactions. He achieved near-celebrity status, appearing on magazine covers and marching in parades and rallies, but also led the department during multiple controversial shootings that critics said showed a lack of cultural shift. Acevedo was often criticized for cultivating the limelight more than leading the department.
He received a reprimand by former city manager Marc Ott and was docked five days pay for violating Ott’s directive that he not discuss the police shooting of David Joseph.
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He left Austin to lead the Houston Police Department, where he marched with protesters after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and incorrectly blamed “radicals” from Austin for unrest there.
In 2021, Acevedo was hired to lead the Miami Police Department in what became a tumultuous tenure. He referred to the “Cuban mafia” that controlled the city, igniting a firestorm, and was fired six months later. It was among several incidents that prompted the city manager to fire Acevedo six months later.
Most recently, he has served as interim police chief in Aurora, Colo., prior to his announcement earlier this week that he was returning to Texas.