“There’s a lot of young people,” HPD Chief Diaz said. “Unfortunately, some of them are making bad decisions.
HOUSTON — The Houston Police Department is continuing to crack down on what they’re calling after-hours clubs.
“These clubs are just popping up everywhere, so we’re going to keep tackling them,” HPD Chief J. Noe Diaz said at the scene of an after-hours club raid early Saturday morning.
The raid took place on West Parker Road near the North Freeway around 3 a.m.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire joined Diaz at the scene. The two said there are alcohol, cocaine and guns involved in clubs like these.
“There’s a lot of young people,” Diaz said. “Unfortunately, some of them are making bad decisions.
The chief said there were around 65 to 70 people crammed into the small club that had no sprinklers or fire exits.
“Something catastrophic can happen in one of these places because people are so tight in a very little space, and it’s not regulated or permitted in the city,” Diaz said.
He said there will likely be about 10 arrests made in this raid.
“I certainly applaud HPD, our command staff and the rank and file that are out here in the middle of the early morning, on Saturday morning, doing everything they can to make Houston safer,” Whitmire said.
The mayor said several agencies were involved in Saturday morning’s raid, including the Comptroller’s Office, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Texas DPS, and even officers from the Fort Worth area.
Diaz said a lot of planning and manpower, including undercover officers, goes into these raids.
“We have some incredible police officers, some incredible undercover officers that put their lives on the line every day to make this city safer,” Diaz said.
This isn’t the first after-hours raid in Houston in recent months. In May, 20 people were arrested in a raid in southeast Houston. In April, 12 were taken into custody in north Houston.
Watch the update Diaz and Whitmire gave at the scene: