Acevedo: Will He Stay or Will He Go?

At press time, we were still waiting to hear whether city officials in Big D have decided to pick Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo to be their next top cop. Acevedo was one of six finalists for the job, and Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm was in Austin last Friday shadowing him around town during a site visit, scoping out his current working environment and talking with colleagues and community members (including the NAACP's Nelson Linder and the local ACLU's Debbie Russell). The point of the visit, Suhm said during a brief presser outside the NAACP headquarters on East 12th Street, was to try to determine "whether or not" Acevedo and Dallas would be "a good fit." Acevedo has said he likes it here in the ATX but that Dallas, a more urban environment with professional major-league sports franchises – and, by the way, a shitload more crime – would also be a "desirous" place to live. Whether he'll take the job if offered remains to be seen; City Hall buzz leans sharply both ways.

More curiously, on April 8, the Pasadena Star-News in California reported that Acevedo had been named one of three finalists for the chief spot in the small city (roughly 150,000) just northeast of Los Angeles. Acevedo said that he was not a candidate for that job – could it be that the daily got it wrong? "I would like for everyone to know that I am not a finalist, and I am not in the process for this position," Acevedo said in a press statement. Meanwhile, the Star-News reported on April 9 that Acevedo had been considered for the job (indeed, that's what Acevedo reportedly told it) but was "no longer an applicant" for the position.