Chief Hurtt Must Resign

The performance of Houston Police Department Chief Harold L. Hurtt has reached unacceptable levels. The recent death of Officer Rodney Johnson at the hands of an illegal migrant from Mexico is simply the latest and most obvious example of Hurtt’s incompetence and stone-faced apathy to the needs of his officers and the city.

Hurtt was the guy who thought that red-light cameras at intersections to increase ticket revenue was better than protecting safety by using police officers.

Hurtt is the guy who decided HPD officers could not pursue suspects in chases, a decision which ran directly counter to the officers’ experienced opinion.

And when Rodney Johnson was gunned down by an illegal who should never have been in the United States at all, Hurtt refused to allow HPD officers even ask suspects if they are in the United States legally, much less take them off the streets. Mayor Bill White asked Chief Hurtt to reconsider his – well, his consistently stupid and dangerous decision – last December, but Hurtt did not bother to reconsider, and now a police officer is dead in part because of that policy.

Chief Hurtt is not even available to answer questions and criticisms from Houstonians; he went off on a trip to give speeches in Arizona and North Carolina immediately after Officer Johnson's death. Almost as if the murder of one of his officers brings him no worry or grief.

Resign, Chief Hurtt.

Now.

Before your policies and politics get more people killed.