Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner issued a mandatory curfew on Tuesday night in an effort to prevent looting in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
The curfew from midnight to 5 a.m is a “tool to assess the intentions of the people who are out there,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said, according to ABC News.
Acevedo warned residents to stay off the streets during the curfew unless it was “absolutely necessary” to be out.
“No one needs to be on the road or out from ten to five,” Mayor Turner said in a statement. “There are too many people from across our city to many residents that are out of their homes and they are in shelters and I don’t want them to have to worry about someone breaking into their homes or looting or doing anything of that nature while they are away.”
The Houston police department also warned residents to be on the look out for people impersonating officers going door-to-door in the Kingwood area, which is one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the devastation of Harvey.
Officers have made over 3,500 rescues since the hurricane ripped through the Texan city over the weekend, but that does not mean they have stopped being law enforcers, Acevedo said.
So far, there has been nine confirmed deaths caused by Hurricane Harvey.
Curfew going into effect at midnight tonight. #hounews pic.twitter.com/nM6u36EJwG
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) August 30, 2017