Much has been made in the last 18 hours regarding the latest Houston City Council meeting, and Council’s reticence to approve $750,000 for online and print advertising for the Houston Police Department. The dollars were to be spent for recruiting purposes.

Last year, Council approved $300,000 in print and Internet advertising, but because the HPD was tight-lipped about the success of the campaign, the 14-member panel refrained from a second rubber-stamp.

According to Channel 13 news coverage, Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck had this to say:

On this critical issue, when we are allocating $750,000, we need to make sure we're getting our money's worth.

The Houston Chronicle reports they have obtained an internal HPD memo that surveyed some applicants regarding how they heard the department was monitored. However, they have yet to turn the memo over to council.

Police Department officials released a statement saying they were aware of council’s concerns regarding the lack of cost/benefit analysis, and “[were] working diligently to get [council] the information they requested and need to make informed decisions.”

Update: Here's the website Patriot Advertising (the firm HPD would be paying again to develop and run ads) created for the police department, as well as a snap-shot of the print ad.