TX: Who is Ban Tien? Everything you need to know about Metro's new chief

Ban Tien was sworn in as Metro police chief Nov. 15 after Mayor John Whitmire announced he would take over for former Chief Vera Bumpers.

He is heading the nearly 300-officer agency after a lengthy career at the Houston Police Department, most recently in helping guide the agency through a scandal that saw more than 264,000 cases suspended with an internal code citing a lack of personnel. Metro officers police the city's public transit facilities and the roads and areas around them.

Tien did not respond to requests for an interview about his new role.

Whitmire has touted the potential he sees in the Metro Police Department since winning the mayoral election in 2023 and has praised the job he thinks Tien can do in charge.

Here's everything to know about the transit group's new leader:

A long career in law enforcement

Tien joined the U.S. Army out of high school before starting a career in law enforcement. His careers have included stints as a special agent at the Drug Enforcement Agency and 32 years in the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Reserves and 25 years with the Houston Police Department.

He was the first Asian American to serve as an executive assistant chief for the Houston Police Department.

Taking on a suspended cases scandal

Former Houston Police Chief Troy Finner praised Tien for the role he played in bringing the agency's suspended cases scandal to light. Finner said it was in November 2023 that Tien first approached him and told him investigative divisions across the department had been using a code citing a lack of personnel to suspend cases for years.

Police leaders soon learned the agency had used the code more than 264,000 times since 2016 and reassigned more than 100 people to look through every case and reach out to victims, with Tien leading the charge.

"In my opinion, Ban Tien should get a lot of credit for this," Finner said earlier in 2024. "He had the courage to come and tell me — when I expected other people of high rank to come and tell me — what's going on."

Tien's role overseeing the suspended cases investigation continued until Chief Noe Diaz arrived in Houston in August, shortly after which he was reassigned to lead the agency's field operations, which includes patrol divisions.

Arrival at Metro

In January, shortly after taking office, Whitmire said he wanted to merge Metro police with the Houston Police Department, adding the agency's 300 officers to Houston's almost 6,000-person department. But former Metro board chairman Sanjay Ramabhadran said at the time the move would be more complicated than it may seem.

Whitmire said he hoped Tien cultivated better collaboration between the two agencies and that better public safety might increase ridership numbers.

Doug Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, said the agency's 300 or so officers would help bolster the larger agency's ranks significantly. Houston police leaders have said they wish the department could add as many as 2,000 additional officers.

But if the Houston Police Department could somehow tap into Metro's financial resources, that would be a tremendous benefit, Griffith said.