The City of Miami has a new top cop and after just a couple of weeks on the job, he’s taking a closer look at his plans for the future.
“I’m super excited. I’m absolutely so happy to be here [and] my family is looking forward to coming here and to be meeting these great police officers that are full of energy, enthusiastic,” said Police Chief Art Acevedo.
Chief Acevedo comes to the Magic City from Houston, where he led the nation’s fourth largest police department for almost five years.
While serving as chief of police in Houston, he was on the front lines during the city’s response to Hurricane Harvey and gained national attention during the city’s protests over George Floyd’s death.
“The George Floyd protests in the biggest city in Texas, we didn’t have a single building burned. When you have mayors from other cities calling you as the police chief, asking you how did you get it done, it’s a great sense of pride for us,” he said.
Acevedo says he reduced violent crime in Austin by 42%. He hopes to do the same in Miami.
“We’re always going to be looking outward, around us and around the world to make sure our practices are keeping up with latest technology, strategies and community reach programs to help us build a safer community in Miami,” he said.
Acevedo says that his first order of business would be building trust within the community.
“Don’t give up on us. If we don’t give up on each other and do our very best, we are in for some better tomorrows and the only way to accomplish that [is] together as a community, hopefully people are caring of one another,” he added.
Chief Acevedo was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1968 when he was 4 years old. He replaces Miami Chief Police Jorge Colina, who retired in February after being Miami’s Chief of Police for three years.
