As tensions grow over police surveillance in Houston, some residents planning to speak at a City Council meeting got unexpected calls from the Houston Police Department. The residents, who planned to criticize what they see as excessive police practices, said the Houston Police Department officers called them to ask about their plans and defend the Houston Police Department’s actions, as reported by ABC13.
According to an ABC13 report, multiple speakers at the latest council meeting said they felt intimidated after Houston Police Department reached out to them before they could speak, and Alondra Andrade, who stepped forward to criticize Houston Police Department’s camera systems and its cooperation with federal immigration authorities, expressed her deep concern after an officer’s call to her personal number; she saw it as an extension of the surveillance system she was about to criticize. “After receiving a call from HPD to my personal phone number, I’m deeply concerned,” Andrade told ABC13.
While the calls from the Houston Police Department did not sit well with the speakers, Houston Mayor Whitmire’s spokesperson relayed that the city officials made these calls in a good faith attempt to collect feedback and address issues, a sentiment echoed by councilmember Carolyn Evans Shabazz in her response that no calls should be made to intimidate anyone and the assurance that it would be addressed by the mayor’s chief of staff as completely unacceptable, as reported by ABC13…