Charles McClelland

Charles A. McClelland Jr. was the police chief of the Houston Police Department (HPD) from 2010 through 2016. Joining the department in May 1977, McClelland worked his way up through the ranks, from rookie to assistant chief in 1998, before being asked to step in as acting chief. A graduate of the University of , University of , and the FBI National Academy, he oversaw the department's implementation of tasers and a real-time crime analysis program.

Education McClelland holds a bachelor's degree in criminology from the University of Houston–Downtown and a master's degree in sociology from the University of Houston–Clear Lake,

When racial tensions at the city's Northeast Patrol Division boiled over in 1992, McClelland and Capt. Mike Thaler were brought in to remedy discrimination complaints by black patrolmen. As an assistant chief, he has been at the center of some of HPD's most controversial incidents of recent years, one being the approval of the August 2002 raid on a Kmart parking lot where nearly 300 bystanders were arrested during a crackdown on street racing. McClelland later testified he never saw a subsequent memo authorizing the arrests of spectators as well as racers. He also oversaw the department's implementation of tasers Known as a meticulous investigator, McClelland was brought into one patrol division to quell racial tensions. Mayor Annise Parker confirmed him as chief in early 2010 until his 2016 retirement when Parker's successor (Sylvester Turner) became mayor).