Houston Mayor John Whitmire set to announce new HPD chief

HOUSTON – The Katy Police Department’s front doors are 30 miles from the Houston Police Department’s, but according to multiple sources, HPD is about to welcome a new police chief from Houston’s western neighbor.

Last week, KPRC 2 Investigates asked Mayor John Whitmire, “How good of a friend is Noe Diaz?”

Mayor Whitmire quickly revealed, “I’ve worked with Noe for over twenty years. He knows Houston and I’m in conversation with him,” the mayor said with a smile.

Whitmire has had concrete conversations with Diaz according to multiple sources and all agree that Diaz, the current chief of the Katy Police Department and a former Texas Ranger, is being targeted by Whitmire to soon become the top man at HPD.

“To pick a guy from DPS, from the Texas Rangers, with that level of integrity and professionalism can’t hurt. I think HPD will benefit from this selection,” said Mike Knox, a former Houston City Council member.

As a former member of HPD, Knox is uniquely qualified to not only understand the internal operations of HPD, but also what it takes to manage the elected staff that makes up City Hall.

“Do I think he can do it? There’s every reason to believe he can. He’s just going to have to get used to a different political system, a different community system, a different system of things that he’s going to have to do, but he’s a smart guy, I think he’ll do just fine,” Knox said Monday.

Diaz, who, to be clear, has no connection to this reporter, would not comment to KPRC 2 Investigates.

Was Mayor Whitmire able to give us any further information? He quickly ended our interview last week when I asked him to confirm.

However, Knox revealed that Katy officers were also treating Diaz with HPD as a done deal.

“Well, we heard he was going to join HPD and we’re gonna hate to lose him, you know, we just got used to him and he made some big changes and so we’re gonna have to find somebody else to carry the ball,” is how Knox described what Katy officers are telling him.

Knox also added that Katy officers feel their department’s loss is HPD’s gain.