Staffing for the Houston Police Department has improved since 2024 but the force is still short over 1,000 people.
Records show the department is still down about 1,200 people. They are authorized to have 6,405 positions with 5,260 of those currently being filled. Even some high-ranking positions are short on staff. The third-highest-ranking job, executive assistant chief, only has three of its five slots filled.
Recruiting and retaining officers has been tough, but trying to match the salaries offered by other major Texas cities has also been a shortfall for the city of Houston.
President of the Houston Police Officers Union Doug Griffith said cities like Austin and Fort Worth are offering substantially more money than Houston can for entry-level agency positions.
"We are woefully behind every other agency in the state," Griffith said. "When you see other agencies making starting out $20,000 more a year, it's hard to recruit people that want to come here and be life long police officers."
The trouble with recruiting also stems from the "defund the police" movement and the George Floyd incident a few years back. Agencies all across the country have seen a decrease in people wanting to become a police officer. In a city like Houston too, crime is nonstop.
"In today's market where we have young people that aren't afraid to move around, they may work here a couple years, find another agency that's paying more, and then they're gone," said Griffith.
There have been a handful of recruits in the most recent academy class that have already left for other agencies. Griffith said they're trying to think outside the box in order to hold on to their good officers they currently have and also recruit new ones. He wants to create a pipeline that extends to high schoolers where they would come into the department as civilians and work a decent paying job.
"It helps build up the culture of HPD and gets these young folks to see what police work is all about," Griffith said. "It gives them a path for us to fast track them when they're of age into the academy because we already know their work ethic and they understand the department."
HPD is also in the middle of contract negotiations with the city. Griffith said Mayor John Whitmire has promised to do all he can to work with the department so they can get closer to some of the higher paying agencies in Texas.
According to Griffith, Houston is more than 20 percent behind in pay to Austin and Forth Worth. Dallas and San Antonio are also in the middle of contract negotiations.
Last year, one-year salary offers went up from $42,000 to $55,000 for first-year officers. Griffith said that is still not enough to compete with other departments in today's world.