MIAMI (AP) - The former police chief in Houston was sworn in Monday as the leader of Miami’s police department.
Art Acevedo, who was born in Cuba, was the first Hispanic person to lead Houston’s police department. He becomes Miami’s 42nd police chief.
“I’m not going to be the Cuban chief. I’m not going to be the Latino chief. I’m not going to be the chief of California or Texas,” Acevedo told a crowd gathered at City Hall. “I’m going to be the chief of Miami because we are going to represent and serve all people from all nations, from all colors, from all sexual orientations and from all walks of life regardless of social-economic standing. And we’re going to be a police department and we will promote people, we will put people forward, we will select people for positions not based on relationships but based on merit – I guarantee that.”
Acevedo, 56, succeeds Jorge Colina, who retired in February after serving as the leader of Miami’s force for three years.
In Houston, Acevedo oversaw a 5,400-person force with a more than $1 billion yearly budget. He has a much smaller staff of 1,400 in Miami. Miami’s force is overshadowed by the Miami-Dade County Police Department’s staff of more than 3,000 officers.
When asked last month why he had taken on a smaller force, Acevedo said his time was coming up in Houston with Mayor Sylvester Turner’s final term coming to an end and said he had enjoyed visiting Miami.
“My heart was here,” he said then, adding that he had opportunities in Los Angeles and with President Joe Biden’s administration.
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