{"id":263131,"date":"2026-04-23T18:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/263131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:45:09","slug":"mayor-whitmire-vows-to-save-blue-santa-program-says-hpd-officers-received-overtime-pay-for-participation-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/263131\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Whitmire vows to save Blue Santa program, says HPD officers received overtime pay for participation \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"HPD<\/a><\/p>\n

Houston Police Department Facebook<\/p>\n

Larry Satterwhite, a former executive assistant chief for the Houston Police Department, helps unload toys from a truck as part of the Houston Blue Santa program in December 2023.<\/p>\n

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he is working to secure funding for the Blue Santa program after organizers for the nonprofit, which provides toys to children in need during the holiday season, announced the annual initiative would be ending<\/a> because police officers could no longer be paid for their participation.<\/p>\n

In a statement released Wednesday<\/a> on social media, Whitmire said he supports the Blue Santa program, which was founded in 1984 and has partnered with Houston Police Department (HPD) officers to deliver presents to children. However, the city cannot legally use HPD resources, including overtime pay, to support the nonprofit, according to the mayor. <\/p>\n

“HPD notified Blue Santa Program Incorporated that it cannot use on-duty resources to manage their non-profit,” Whitmire said. “Blue Santa Program Incorporated decided not to continue the program. … I’m actively working with the business community to secure private funding and support so the program can continue with direct donations.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Blue Santa organizers announced the end of the program on their website<\/a> this week and said it was due to a legal issue with the city police department\u2019s participation, including that officers would be compensated for their time when working with the nonprofit. According to Whitmire, this included overtime pay. <\/p>\n

The city’s decision to no longer financially support the program comes as Houston faces a $174 million budget deficit<\/a>. During the current fiscal year, the city\u2019s police, fire and solid waste departments are overshooting their overtime budgets by a combined $54 million, according to projections by the city controller\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

A police department spokesperson told Houston Public Media on Tuesday that “HPD will continue to participate in any toy drives, food drives, and any other events to help our community.” <\/p>\n

According to the Blue Santa program\u2019s website, it began in 1984 after HPD officers responded to a shoplifting call involving a man attempting to steal toys to give to his children as Christmas presents. <\/p>\n

Last month, the Houston Chronicle reported<\/a> that HPD\u2019s community engagement activities had declined after the department quietly closed its community affairs division in 2025. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to ensure that every eligible Houston child receives a Blue Santa delivery this holiday season,\u201d Whitmire said in his statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Police Department Facebook Larry Satterwhite, a former executive assistant chief for the Houston Police Department, helps unload…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3766,6023,56,97631,58,5760,3771,57,2543,98533,66,223,672],"class_list":{"0":"post-263131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-city-of-houston","9":"tag-city-of-houston-budget","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-blue-santa-program","12":"tag-houston-headlines","13":"tag-houston-mayor","14":"tag-houston-mayor-john-whitmire","15":"tag-houston-news","16":"tag-houston-police-department","17":"tag-hpd-overtime-pay","18":"tag-local","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-police"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}