Houston Mayor Bill White plans to make a major announcement about putting more police officers on the street. That announcement is scheduled to come Tuesday morning.

11 News has confirmed the move will mean hundreds of extra officers patrolling city streets. But only after some threats from the police union.

Turns out the manpower shortage has been a longstanding sore spot with police officers. Sources told 11 News that three weeks ago the Houston Police officers union met with the mayor to complain.

Word is the union indicated it would publicly slam the mayor and police chief if additional resources were not forthcoming.

That prompted tomorrow’s announcement in which the city will fund the increased patrols with sales tax revenues, which have been higher than anticipated, and $200 million from city reserves.

The money provides for overtime pay and additional HPD academy classes to create the additional manpower.

HPD plans to have seven cadet classes next year.

Problem is HPD has long had trouble filling its cadet classes with qualified candidates.

To tackle that problem, sources tell us that HPD is hiring a special task force from hometown Continental Airlines. That task force will review HPD's beleaguered recruiting process and give advice for improvements. 

Both the mayor and chief were officially unavailable for comments on the story Monday night.