Video Introduction to the Houston PD CordicoShield Wellness App from Chief Art Acevedo


This is a video message from Houston PD Chief Art Acevedo regarding the Houston Police Department CordicoShield Wellness App.  Chief Acevedo also serves as President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association.  Below is the transcript of the video.


Hi, it’s Chief Acevedo. Welcome to the department’s new wellness app, Cordico. Like many other departments around the country and world, HPD is deploying this app to put wellness resources right at your fingertips. The app is 100% confidential and anonymous. Cordico does not track who downloads the app, what pages you visit while you’re in the app, or any responses you might put into the various surveys in the app. This was a crucial factor as we decided between different apps available on the market.

Cordico is trusted by so many departments because it delivers the confidentiality and anonymity it promises. Law enforcement is a tough profession. Officers, dispatchers, and our civilian staff see, hear, and read things that would unsettle anyone else. While we each develop our own ways of dealing with this vicarious trauma, I am here to remind you that none of you are alone in this. Our new wellness slogan, healthy you, healthy blue, aims to remind each of us that we individually need to achieve and maintain our own wellness if our department and our families are going to be strong.

I encourage you to look through and use the resources available on the app. Our team will continue to supplement the content to keep it fresh and relevant for the work you do. Thank you for your service. As always, please be safe, be well, be healthy and here’s to you.





About Chief Art Acevedo

Art Acevedo is currently the Chief of Police for the Houston Police Department (HPD) in Texas and was appointed by Mayor Sylvester Turner. He was sworn into office on November 30, 2016, and leads a department of 5,400 sworn law enforcement officers and 892 civilian support personnel in the fourth largest city in the United States that has 671 square miles. HPD has an annual general fund budget of $931 million, and $1.05 billion total budget.

Chief Acevedo firmly believes that good, two-way communication is vital for a successful community and steadily works to strengthen the bond between the community and its police department. As a proponent of community policing, Chief Acevedo refers to the proven practice as “Relational Policing,” which is an opportunity to forge a relationship with each and every person a department member comes in contact with. He also subscribes to law enforcement being a data driven, intelligence led process that is well-suited to the policing profession in the 21st Century.

As the first Hispanic to lead HPD, Chief Acevedo brings a unique understanding to the concerns of the diverse communities in Houston. Born in Cuba, he was four years old when he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1968. Acevedo subsequently grew up in California and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration from the University of La Verne in California. He has been awarded a myriad of leadership and community service awards, and In July 2018 was named by the Carnegie Corporation a “Great Immigrant * Great American.”

Acevedo began his law enforcement career with the California Highway Patrol in 1986 as a field patrol officer in East Los Angeles. Ultimately, he rose through the ranks and was named Chief of the California Highway Patrol in 2005. Prior to his nomination and appointment to lead the Houston Police Department, Chief Acevedo served over nine years as the Chief of Police for the Austin, Texas Police Department from July 2007 – December 2016.

Chief Acevedo has held various leadership positions with the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and is currently the President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. He is married and has three children.