Houston Mayor John Whitmire wants to tap into a younger audience for police recruits, but doing so may require going to Austin and changing state law.
During a news conference introducing new Police Chief Noe Diaz, the mayor said he is in talks with lawmakers to try to see what he could do to get younger cadets for the Houston Police Department as a means of addressing its officer shortage, but the trouble with that was that the current law on the books doesn’t allow those younger than 21 to carry a weapon. He said he wanted to explore ways to introduce younger candidates with proper safeguards, training and background checks.
