05:18 PM CST on Wednesday, November 30, 2005

From 11 News Staff Reports

We're hearing more ideas about how Houston might solve its police staffing shortage and put more officers on the street.

HPD is facing a manpower crunch at the same time the city's homicide rate is up.

The force's police academy is not graduating enough cadets to replace retiring officers.

So now, the mayor and some city council members are talking about bringing retired police officers back onto the force to temporarily fill minor support jobs on the police force.

"Well, retired officers obviously bring a great deal of wealth. They've already been trained," explained Councilman Adrian Garcia, a retired police officer. "They already know the system. They already know the process. They already know the computer system. They already know the organization."

But police union leaders are wary, arguing that putting overqualified, older officers into minor support jobs could lead to personnel conflicts with younger, experienced officers.

"I think this is one of these things that could probably blow up in your face. You know, you've got a fellow that may have been in investigations for 35, 40 years versus someone that's only been in for four or five years," said HPOU President Hans Marticiuc. "By four or five years, you're already a pretty seasoned investigator. But you've got another fellow sitting there at the desk doing support work, but (saying) 'You know, I don't really like the way you did that, maybe you ought to be doing this, maybe you ought to be doing it that way.' I can just see a whole bunch of personnel problems coming out of this thing."

Mayor Bill White is also asking FEMA to supplement the city's police budget through the middle of 2007 to help defray the cost of providing police protection to the tens of thousands of Katrina evacuees who've moved to Houston.