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05 August 2008
East End Chamber of Commerce Committee touts CompStat
An East End Chamber of Commerce committee is urging HPD to adopt CompStat (an approach to crimefighting that has been discussed here regularly):
The Crime Awareness Committee of the Greater East End Chamber of Commerce is endorsing and hoping to persuade the Houston Police Department to implement CompStat.
The crime-mapping system identifies and tracks established and emerging trends and enables law enforcement to share information in a more timely manner.
Committee members said they think the organizational management tool may help the police to better identify and combat pockets of crime throughout the city.
Committee chairman Larry Lipton hosted a recent meeting to detail the program. City Councilman Peter Brown gave a presentation about CompStat, which has been used in places such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York City.
“This program takes data and gives it to police so that they can dispatch their forces efficiently,” said Lipton. “Our committee wants HPD to adopt this program.”
blogHOUSTON also wants HPD to adopt this program.
Unfortunately, CompStat proponents are going to have to work to convince the next mayor, because MayorWhiteChiefHurtt haven't shown much interest in the proven crimefighting approach.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ CompStat"> 08/05/08 10:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
08 September 2008
KHOU reports on CompStat; critics continue to mischaracterize
Last week, KHOU-11 ran a story by Christine Haas that featured Jay Wall, a CompStat advocate and HPD critic whose arguments should be familiar to readers here:
1) HPD's misleading murder reporting (documented well by KHOU's Mark Greenblatt) casts doubt on HPD's leadership generally.
2) CompStat is a proven management tool that could be used to good effect in Houston, especially given HPD's reduced manpower.
3) HPD's "Real Time Crime Information Center" is not "CompStat on Steroids" (as HPD and City officials allege from time to time, mistakenly), since it is reactive and is an information resource, not a comprehensive, proactive crimefighting/management tool (like CompStat).
The Haas story dealt with all three themes, albeit with varying degrees of success:
1) HPD's misreporting of crime statistics is only referenced in passing. Viewers/readers unfamiliar with Mark Greenblatt's reporting probably won't understand why this is an important issue -- or even that it is an issue.
2) The management tool point is only made in passing, and the point is not well developed. The fact is, the combination of accountability AND proactive crime targeting/prevention are reasons why CompStat has seen success elsewhere (and occasional grumbling from entrenched people who feel threatened by change). The smarter use of crimefighting resources would seem to be a no-brainer here, because of the manpower shortage.
3) Opponents of CompStat are either intentionally or ignorantly trying to portray the Real Time Crime Information Center as something it is not -- an alternative to CompStat. CompStat is a management approach to fighting crime. HPD's Real Time Crime Information Center is an information tool at best (and there are questions about its robustness). When the police union president compares the two in this story, he appears to be advancing the MayorWhiteChiefHurtt PR/political line -- but the comparison isn't accurate. And it was probably confusing for viewers.
This story appears to have suffered from trying to be overly ambitious and cover too much. If area journalists tackle these important topics in the future (especially points 2 and 3, since Greenblatt has done some good reporting on 1), it might be nice to see points 2 and 3 above treated in some depth -- with more expert commentary on the success of CompStat where it has been tried, and more expert commentary on the differences between CompStat and the Real Time Crime Information Center. We certainly hope that CompStat gets a fairer hearing from the city's next mayor (and, hopefully, a new police chief who understands CompStat), whoever that turns out to be.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ CompStat; critics continue to mischaracterize"> 09/08/08 01:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
07 February 2008
Why can't Houstonians have access to real-time crime info?
The Chronicle's Carolyn Feibel posts about a third-party subscription service that takes area crime data and moves it to easily searchable maps, and suggests that it might be a solution for the City of Houston if Mayor White and Chief Hurtt are actually serious about providing real-time crime data to citizens.
That might be one way to go, but we thought the City was moving forward with its not-Compstat technology, which supposedly will provide current crime data. Why can't that system have a public component, replete with maps? CAN the new system even provide searchable real-time data?
We know Compstat can provide searchable real-time data, and to see it in action, one only needs to visit the Compstat part of the Los Angeles Police Department's website. I was just able to look at current crime statistics. Then I clicked over to LAPD's crimemaps section, which combines real-time searchable crime data with maps. Very slick.
Since Jay Wall and associates began writing about Compstat regularly, Chief Hurtt has done his best to shrug off the tool, despite its proven effectiveness in New York (and now LA). So, we very much look forward to the announcement on Chief Hurtt's blog that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's preferred system can do everything that LAPD Chief William Bratton's Compstat system can do. We sense we might be waiting a while on that.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/07/08 12:49 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)
11 August 2008
18 police agencies got NYC CompStat proponents; Houston got Hurtt
In the latest issue of City Journal, Heather MacDonald pens a fine article on the spread of CompStat, the innovative approach to policing developed in New York City, across the county:
Since the late 1990s, more than 18 police commanders have left the New York City police department to run their own agencies elsewhere. This unprecedented migration has spread the Compstat revolution—the data-driven transformation of policing begun under New York police commissioner William Bratton in 1994—across the nation. Some of the transplants are well-known: Bratton himself now heads the Los Angeles Police Department; and his former first deputy, John Timoney, has led both the Miami and the Philadelphia forces. But the diaspora also includes lesser-known young Turks who rose quickly through the NYPD’s ranks during the paradigm-shattering 1990s. Now, as chiefs in their own right, they’re proving the efficacy of analytic, accountable policing in agencies wholly dissimilar from New York’s—in one case, achieving success beyond anything seen in Gotham or elsewhere.
The entire story is well worth reading. We wish we could say that one of those 18 police commanders wound up in Houston, and that CompStat was showing similar success here. Unfortunately, Mayor White plucked Harold Hurtt out of Phoenix when he might have hired a CompStat proponent.
Oh well. We encourage the candidates for the next mayoral election to give MacDonald's story a careful read.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ CompStat proponents; Houston got Hurtt"> 08/11/08 10:53 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
18 June 2008
Real Time Crime Center needs another $1 million
At the Houston Politics blog, Carolyn Feibel notes a budget item for HPD:
$1.06 million for additional software for HPD's crime analysis center.
That's the Real Time Crime Center MayorWhiteChiefHurtt touted as better than CompStat. In fact, Chief Hurtt called it "CompStat on steroids":
Hurtt says that specialized software will link together databases kept by federal, state and county agencies. It will help identify whether local crimes are part of a trend or cluster, even "forecasting" where crimes might occur, so the 60-member "crime reduction" unit can be dispatched quickly to that "hot spot."
The steroids metaphor may have been ill-timed considering the current baseball scandal. That said, however, Hurtt said that HPD visited NYC, Chicago and L.A. and adopted the "best practices" of each of those departments. And all for about $2.9 million, whereas New York's crime center cost $11 million.
Seems almost too good to be true.
Another million dollars? Was the program incomplete when the city bought it? Is this an upgrade? What is the extra million for?
And has anyone cornered Chief Hurtt for a definition of "CompStat on steroids"?
Regarding "best practices" of NYC, Chicago and L.A., do those police departments also undercount homicides?
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Maybe that should be, CompStat on $teroids?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/18/08 07:14 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
06 December 2007
Jay Wall to discuss CompStat at HPRA meeting Friday
The Houston Property Rights Association emails that Jay Wall will be the featured speaker at Friday's regular lunch meeting:
This Friday noon the HPRA speaker is Jay Wall, who will tell us about the CompStat – Comparative Statistics - Policing system. This is the system which was developed in New York City, and has been used to great effect for crime reduction in NYC, Boston, Chicago, and several other cities. He will also discuss the obstacles he and his associates have encountered in trying to get it implemented in Houston.
PUBLIC INVITED: $16 Courtyard Restaurant, 1885 St. James Place Friday noon, December 7, 2007
(directions: The Courtyard is south of San Felipe, west of Yorktown, and east of Chimney Rock.)
The meeting starts at noon. The $16 lunch is optional.
We have previously linked to several op-eds by Wall and associates on Houston policing. His talk should be informative.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ CompStat at HPRA meeting Friday"> 12/06/07 10:49 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
13 May 2007
Op-ed: Houston needs Bratton's approach to crime
Alan Helfman, Jay Wall, and William A Wolff have followed a March 2007 op-ed on crime with another op-ed on crime in today's Chronicle.
In this one, they advocate greater use of statistics and New York City's broken-windows approach to fighting crime.
Here is their conclusion:
When [former NYC police commissioner William] Bratton arrived in L.A., he found a shrinking department, crime rates that had been climbing for three years and a demoralized organization. During his four-year tenure as LAPD's chief, morale within the department has skyrocketed, relations with the minority community have improved and crime has fallen 25 percent. The LAPD was manpower-challenged, too, with 2.25 officers per 1,000 population and a 468-square mile territory to police. The "won't work here" argument won't hold water.
Houston Mayor Bill White has shown little or no interest in implementing CompStat for HPD. We believed that a mayor elected based on his promise to bring "best practices" to city government would have instituted a version of CompStat a long time ago.
CompStat can and will bring accountability to HPD. It would empower HPD's middle management and allow the cream of both its managerial and front line forces to rise to the top.
Energizing the stodgy command at HPD, forcing city departments to work together and ultimately altering public behavior will take hard work and guts. We hope our city leaders will step up and meet the challenge. It's about time.
The city needs the philosophy that William Bratton brought to NYC (and LA) policing as much as it needs the statistical tools he employed.
Unfortunately, neither Mayor White nor his absentee police chief seem that interested in Bratton's approach to crime.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/13/07 09:39 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
18 July 2007
HPOU publication endorses CompStat; Hurtt repeats 2005 rhetoric
Back in May, Alan Helfman, Jay Wall, and William A Wolff penned a Chronicle op-ed making the case for CompStat, the statistical tool for fighting crime employed by William Bratton when he was police chief in New York (and now in LA).
In the June/July issue of Badge & Gun, the publication of the Houston Police Officers' Union, Helfman, et al., again make the case for CompStat in Houston (no online version is available yet). The Badge & Gun editorial page also endorses the concept:
In today's Houston, law-abiding citizens experience nothing but frustration when they want the latest crime statistics. As the trio of writers pointed out, they take almost six weeks to reach Hurtt's desk. In a communications age as sophisticated as ours, information becomes outdated and as stale as last week's bread loaf. How then can it be effectively used? We know the answer: It can't.
With CompStat, NYPD's website (check out www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/) shows crime precinct by precinct and allows crime complaint data to be examined on a week-to-date, prior 30 days and year-to-date basis, with comparison to previous years' activity. New York Blue is able to establish crime trends and commit to the ways and means needed to fight them.
Houston needs to refine and re-establish its methods for capturing crime statistics and build a system as unique and effective to Houston as CompStat is in the Big Apple.
Chief Hurtt, who previously pooh-poohed the CompStat notion, visited with the Chronicle editorial board recently. Here is his preferred approach to crime:
In a presentation to the Chronicle editorial board Monday, Hurtt outlined initiatives he believes will improve the department and help bring down crime rates in the city. One of them hinges on building a state of the art records management system to get and share data essential for good law enforcement decisions.
Violent crime continues to be a major problem, though it is declining from last year's high pace. According to Hurtt, burglaries of homes and motor vehicles are a major concern of the public, but one that citizens can combat through common sense preventive measures. He described one community meeting where residents complained about car break-ins. In a demonstration, officers checked the attendees' parked vehicles and found that 70 percent were either unlocked, had valuables visible or had other vulnerabilities that would attract and enable burglars.According to Hurtt, the best defense against such crimes is a mobilized community with members looking out for one another. "That seems to be missing somehow here," he said.
So, is Chief Hurtt now endorsing CompStat or not?
Because while the first quoted paragraph is promising, the last paragraph sounds a lot like Chief Hurtt circa 2005, when he effectively announced to Houstonians: "Good luck protecting yourselves!" (and crime continued to surge).
Our catty side can't help but wonder if his notion of a "mobilized community" is one that flees to Phoenix on the weekends (and if any Chron editorial board member was bold enough to ask).
RECENT: Burglary rates in Houston on the rise (Jeff McShan, KHOU-11 News), KTRK: Good news on crime (blogHOUSTON).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ CompStat; Hurtt repeats 2005 rhetoric"> 07/18/07 11:59 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (17)
03 August 2009
Olson: We're #1! (in violent crime in Texas)
In a front-page story for the Chronicle today, busy reporter Brad Olson took an in-depth look at FBI crime statistics and how Houston ranks among the largest 25 cities in the country.
The results, in terms of violent crime, aren't good at all. Despite recent chirping from MayorWhiteChiefHurtt that crime numbers in Houston are astoundingly good (and getting better!), the reality as demonstrated by Olson's analysis is that Houston is one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Indeed, Houston is ranked #8 nationwide in terms of violent crime per capita, and #1 in Texas.
Please go read Olson's story in its entirety (as journalists who do that amount of research and analysis at least deserve a proper cite, link, and an "attaboy"), and also check out his accompanying blog post and the crime data he compiled.
We have long made our opinion on Houston crime and policing clear. We think HPD is understaffed, a problem that emerged under Mayor Lee Brown and that remains with us today. We also think HPD is poorly managed, and could benefit from adopting a management philosophy (CompStat) that not only makes wiser use of technology, but is also proactive, strategic, and proven.
We hope our current mayoral candidates will be addressing HPD and crimefighting in much greater detail over the coming weeks and months. Because Houston can be better than #8.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/03/09 09:23 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
21 October 2007
Helfman, et al., on reinventing HPD
Alan Helfman, Jay Wall, and William Wolff offer another of their periodic op-eds on HPD and Houston crime. Here is an excerpt:
In his inaugural speech as NYPD commissioner, [William] Bratton promised to cut serious crime by 10 percent his first year and 15 percent the second. Bratton underpromised, then overdelivered. In the 27 months of Bill Bratton's tenure as NYPD commissioner, homicide was cut by 50 percent and serious crime was cut by 33 percent. Similar results should be achievable in Houston, not the mere 10 percent reduction in violent crime Chief Hurtt promised (over three years) on Oct. 2.
When looking back on the pre-1994 NYPD, CompStat originator Jack Maple observed that there was no question that some small percentage of police officers were thoroughly lazy, demoralized and actively sought to do as little as possible — they showed up for work, but didn't get actively involved in crime fighting (Maple called these cops "conscientious objectors"). However, the majority of the force was "on the job," performed to the best of their abilities and maintained high levels of performance despite the lack of supportive leadership and the cynicism of other cops. Most wanted to be good, assertive cops, but instead of leading them to excellence, NYPD command had all too often placed obstacles in their way and they became satisfied with a level of performance that was merely adequate. By using CompStat, by empowering and transforming management through the imposition of accountability systems and by forging alliances with the best and most effective operational officers, NYPD's executive corps rapidly transformed the department into one in which the highest standards of performance became the norm.
During his original campaign for mayor, Bill White promised to run the city of Houston in a businesslike fashion. He promised a "bottom-line" focus that would be results-driven. As any good businessman knows, you can't manage what you can't (or won't) measure. We are asking that HPD be managed in a businesslike manner with a true profit and loss sort of approach. HPD should be in the business of "controlling crime," not just reacting to it.
We don't know what Bill White's political aspirations are, but we do know that Rudy Giuliani was propelled to national prominence and now is taking a shot at the presidency, in large part due to the fact that he was the mayor of New York City when NYPD got smart on crime. Will a major reduction in crime in Houston be seen as part of Bill White's legacy? There is still time.
In other parts of the op-ed, the authors discuss how CompStat was implemented -- with great success -- in New York City.
Interestingly, the approach in New York apparently did not call for Bratton to jet off to Phoenix on weekends, like some big-city chiefs.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/21/07 09:30 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
05 October 2007
Chief Hurtt responds to Badge & Gun article, editorial on CompStat
As we noted earlier this summer, HPOU's publication Badge & Gun ran an article by Alan Helfman, Jay Wall, and William A Wolff, who have been pushing for the adoption of CompStat, the statistical tool for fighting crime employed by William Bratton when he was police chief in New York. In that same issue, the Badge & Gun editorial page also endorsed the use of CompStat.
In the September 2007 issue (no link available), Chief Harold Hurtt responds to the Badge & Gun editorial board and Helfman, et al., as follows:
After reading the article by Alan Helfman and others which touts the COMPSTAT policing model as the answer to all of Houston’s crime issues, I would like to provide some balance to the issue. This model is only one of many management tools available to the law enforcement community that is used by some large metropolitan cities throughout the United States. At the Houston Police Department our focus is not to model an exact replica of another city’s style but to find the best practices and make them our own. After all, we must tailor our policing efforts to the needs of our community. This is why so much emphasis is put into crime prevention efforts. It is unrealistic to assume that any policing model is a panacea capable of solving all of Houston’s crime problems.
Notwithstanding a name or title: accurate and timely intelligence, rapid deployment, effective tactics and relentless follow-up and assessment are all things that the Houston Police Department does routinely. COMPSTAT requires commanders to react to changes in the crime rate on a weekly basis. The Houston Police Department is forward-looking, focusing on ways to prevent criminal activity rather than analyzing its aftereffects. We must continue to address crime proactively rather than reactively. I have given division commanders the discretion to direct policing efforts by utilizing crime analysis data, pin-pointing crime and targeting the hot spots of their particular communities. This strategy has been effective and as of July 2007, Part 1 violent crime is down by six percent citywide per 100,000 population.I am very proud of the men and women from all ranks and classifications of the Houston Police Department and their efforts to address the public safety needs of our city. Despite the recent retirement of a large number of officers and an unprecedented influx of new citizens, the members of our department have had a major impact on reducing crime and making Houston safer. Mayor White and the City Council have given us the resources and support to sustain our crime prevention strategies with funding for overtime initiatives. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our men and women in blue, Houston is a safer city.
The bolded excerpt suggests that Chief Hurtt is dismissing a proven crimefighting tool because he seems not to understand it.
CompStat is a comprehensive approach to collecting and organizing crime information in a timely manner so that patterns can be discerned and crime can be addressed proactively. It is not merely analysis of the "aftereffects" of crime, as Chief Hurtt asserts incorrectly. Rather, it is advanced statistical analysis of crime aimed at preventing future crime -- analysis that HPD currently cannot conduct because of antiquated record-keeping systems and limitations of its current technology. Since HPD cannot simply throw more bodies at the crime problem (thank to the manpower issues we have been documenting for several years now), the smart/technological approach is of even more potential benefit in Houston, since it allows existing resources to be used more effectively.
Chief Hurtt's assertion that he has "given division commanders the discretion to direct policing efforts by utilizing crime analysis data" misses the point. What Helfman and his colleagues -- along with the Badge & Gun editorial board -- have urged is leadership from the top in implementing an advanced statistical approach to crimefighting that has been proven to work in New York City (when crime was out of control there). The issue isn't about empowering local commanders -- although certainly advanced statistical collection and analysis would benefit HPD at all levels -- but about leadership from the very top of HPD and City Hall.
Unfortunately, the Arizonan who is HPD's leader doesn't even seem to understand the issue at hand or the tool he is dismissing.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ CompStat"> 10/05/07 08:14 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (11)
28 January 2009
Good news and bad news in 2008 crime statistics
Last week, Chief Hurtt held a press conference to discuss 2008 crime statistics.
Most local media outlets only regurgitated his comments, without any detailed reporting on the numbers, but KTRH-740 has helpfully posted a table of the raw numbers.
While there is some good news in these numbers, obviously there is room for improvement.
As candidates gear up for municipal elections, we hope they are preparing for a robust discussion of Houston's crime problem, the leadership at HPD, and proven approaches to crime like CompStat.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/28/09 11:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
24 May 2007
Hurtt responds to Chron op-ed
Last weekend, the Chronicle ran a letter from Chief Hurtt responding to the most recent op-ed from Alan Helfman, Jay Wall and William A. Wolff. In the letter, Chief Hurtt takes exception with their notion that crime statistical analysis should be a much higher priority within HPD, then goes on to argue that crime statistic analysis already IS a high priority within HPD.
We've reproduced the letter below the [Read More] link, as the Chron archives are not always the most searchable.
This part in particular caught my eye:
Despite a recent reduction of more than 600 officers due to retirement as well as an unprecedented influx of new residents, the officers, civilians and managers of our department have actually reduced the likelihood that a Houstonian will be a victim of serious crime.
One supposes it depends on how one defines serious. As the Chronicle reported a little over a week ago, crime declined statewide in Texas last year, but rose in Houston, and murders actually surged in Houston. Chief Hurtt's spokesman didn't have a comment then, and now the Chief's reaction is... denial? Maybe HPD really does need to improve its statistical analysis!
In any case, we sense the Chief is trying to be much more visible of late, what with this op-ed, a rare Saturday press availability, and whispers emanating from downtown that he loves Houston and really doesn't depart for Arizona every weekend. It's almost as if someone has realized a crime problem and an absentee police chief probably won't help in winning statewide election. The problem is, a bumbling-but-present police chief may not help either.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/24/07 08:51 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)
06 April 2008
HPD: Murders down through first quarter of the year
At the end of the week, HPD announced some good news:
HPD officials say that the City of Houston has recorded the fewest numbers of murders for the first quarter of this year since 2005.
The unofficial numbers show 78 murders were recorded through the first three months of this year.
There were 88 murders for the same period in 2007. That’s an 11.3 percent decrease.
While we would prefer that city leaders focus on getting HPD staffing up to acceptable levels and that HPD leaders embrace a COMPSTAT-oriented approach to crimefighting, we'll certainly take some good news. Here's hoping the numbers hold through the entire year.
RELATED COVERAGE: Chronicle.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/06/08 10:50 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
10 August 2009
Timid mayoral candidates reject "drastic" approach to crime
Houston's three mayoral contenders -- and even the other guy in the race -- all agree that we need more police on the street and need "smarter" policing.
None of them really goes into much detail how they will pay for those police, beyond "efficiencies" (or what "smarter" really means beyond "technology").
And they are all pretty timid when it comes to addressing crime, as this excerpt from Bradley Olson's reporting for the Sunday Chronicle (Chron.com editing errors and all) illustrates:
The four candidates' public safety plans share many elements, including a push toward more neighborhood-oriented policing, better cooperation with police agencies in the region and the use of technology for daily crime-fighting.
The four candidates' public safety plans share many elements, including a push toward more neighborhood-oriented policing, better cooperation with police agencies in the region and the use of technology for daily crime-fighting.
Although several candidates noted that having more police has not always been shown to equal less crime, they all generally agree that the department needs more officers. Where they part ways is in how they plan to reach that goal.
All said they would avoid taking steps as drastic as Mayor Bob Lanier's after his 1991 election, when he used hundreds of millions of dollars from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County to pay for street construction, freeing up more money for police staffing.
Paul Magaziner has pointed out that METRO already owes millions to the city (and that the city doesn't seem inclined to collect), so we're not that surprised that none of these candidates is inclined to adopt former Mayor Bob's stance. The new precedent established by Mayor Bill White seems to be hands off METRO.
While it might be "drastic," we're not so sure pulling money from METRO to free the general fund for short-term, reactive policing would be all that effective anyway. We do think that HPD manpower levels are low and that we need to spend what it takes to boost those levels and sustain them, but we also think that HPD needs a better approach to crimefighting overall (CompStat).
In fact, here's our idea of "drastic" leadership when it comes to HPD. William Bratton just announced he's stepping down as police chief in Los Angeles. Is there a mayoral candidate bold enough to endorse bringing Bratton to Houston to implement CompStat (which is all about preventing crime by being smarter)?
That would be bold -- and distinguishing.
Photo of Houston's mayoral candidates by flickr user eschipul, used via a Creative Commons license.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/09 01:22 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)
03 January 2008
Mayor White is now ready to focus on crime
In his final two years as mayor, Bill White says he'll make crime reduction a priority:
On the other hand though, the Mayor said more work needs to be done, and one area of concern is property crimes, which have been on the rise in Houston in recent months.
"As of said on a number of occasions this last year, it's too high, we want to see that number drop," White said. "When we have the Real Time Crime Center up that will help us track those serial burglars, plus we’re doing some other things, number one of which is just getting more people in the field."
Real Time Crime Center? How does it compare to CompStat, which other large cities have used very effectively to help reduce crime, and which Chief Hurtt has refused to consider?
"We've made some real progress in Houston, Texas. And then when you compare the homicide rate per 100-thousand in Houston now, compared to where it was 15 or 16 years ago, it's a small fraction as to where it was," the Mayor said Thursday.
That was this week's other big news -- the city's murder rate for 2007, which the city says is down from 2006, if you trust HPD's numbers. HPD has just been caught fudging the official stats in previous years, so who knows if the numbers released this week are accurate. Maybe Mark Greenblatt's looking into it.
Over at Lose an Eye, Cory Crow makes an excellent point about the murder rate:
If you were to "draw a line" through 2006, writing off the large increase in murders during 2006 as a "one off" event sparked by the confusion surrounding the influx of a criminal element from New Orleans (Not to be confused with the 'normal folks' who were displaced by Katrina mind you) then you'd see that the "murder rate" in Houston is actually still on the uptick (albeit slight), and the only reason the numbers appear lower is due to the fact that 2006 was exceptionally high.
And, again, we've just learned HPD has problems accurately counting murders; the numbers could still increase as HPD admits:
Authorities warn that Houstonians shouldn't get too excited about the unofficial tally.
As cases are reviewed, the numbers will likely increase.
"There are delayed deaths and delays in rulings," Jett said. "In the case of an arson death, it may take six months for it to be ruled a homicide. Infant deaths are the same way."
The problems Mark Greenblatt uncovered, though, were not related to delays in rulings.
And then there's the whole issue of population numbers. It would be helpful if the story disclosed the source the city is using.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/03/08 08:26 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (13)
17 June 2009
San Francisco passes on Chief Hurtt
The two Hearst Chronicles report that San Francisco will not be hiring HPD Chief Harold Hurtt:
San Francisco has bypassed Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt to fill its top cop spot.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday reached outside the city and selected George Gascón, police chief of Mesa, Ariz., to replace outgoing Chief Heather Fong.
That's disappointing, but Hurtt probably won't be with us much longer in any case. It seems unlikely that any of the current mayoral candidates have any interest in retaining Chief Hurtt, and one of the stronger candidates has been crystal clear that he will not be part of a Parker administration:
City Controller Annise Parker already had called for Hurtt’s dismissal at an event earlier this month.
“I don’t believe he’s really ever integrated himself into the larger Houston community,” Parker said in an interview. “Public safety is so essential to everything we do, and we have to have a chief that has his fingers on the pulse of the city.”
We do need someone willing to commit to Houston, but my preference would still be a CompStat-oriented top cop, even though that likely would mean an outside hire.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/17/09 08:46 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)
23 November 2008
Houston should consider "broken-windows" approach to crimefighting
Over the little blog's short lifetime, we have posted with some regularity on broken-windows policing and CompStat, two approaches to crimefighting popularized by Rudy Giuliani in New York City (and treated with some disdain by MayorWhiteChiefHurtt).
The Economist runs some interesting news on a "broken-windows" social experiment:
A PLACE that is covered in graffiti and festooned with rubbish makes people feel uneasy. And with good reason, according to a group of researchers in the Netherlands. Kees Keizer and his colleagues at the University of Groningen deliberately created such settings as a part of a series of experiments designed to discover if signs of vandalism, litter and low-level lawbreaking could change the way people behave. They found that they could, by a lot: doubling the number who are prepared to litter and steal.
The idea that observing disorder can have a psychological effect on people has been around for a while. In the late 1980s George Kelling, a former probation officer who now works at Rutgers University, initiated what became a vigorous campaign to remove graffiti from New York City’s subway system, which was followed by a reduction in petty crime. This idea also underpinned the “zero tolerance” which Rudy Giuliani subsequently brought to the city’s streets when he became mayor.
Many cities and communities around the world now try to get on top of anti-social behaviour as a way of deterring crime. But the idea remains a controversial one, not least because it is often difficult to account for other factors that could influence crime reduction, such as changes in poverty levels, housing conditions and sentencing policy—even, some people have argued, the removal of lead from petrol. An experimental test of the “broken windows theory”, as Dr Kelling and his colleague James Wilson later called the idea, is therefore long overdue. And that is what Dr Keizer and his colleagues have provided.
The rest of the story is here.
We hope as the policing era of MayorWhiteChiefHurtt winds down and the mayoral race gets underway that the candidates will discuss (and embrace) innovative approaches to crime that continue to be proven effective -- especially since HPD remains short on manpower.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/23/08 08:29 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)
15 March 2009
Lykos announces DNA testing policy, calls for regional DNA crime lab
Earlier this week, Harris County DA Pat Lykos announced that moving forward, the DA's office will test DNA evidence in all cases where it is available and relevant.
The new policy was rolled out in response to a 2003 case in which an innocent man, Ricardo Rachell, was wrongly convicted of sexual assault of a minor. Lykos laid some blame on the HPD Crime Lab, which was dysfunctional at the time the case was proceeding. Flanked by HPD Chief Harold Hurtt, Lykos apologized for the "cascading, system-wide breakdown" and also called for the creation of a regional DNA crime lab.
Lykos rightly drew praise for this move, from such diverse quarters as former prosecutor Murray Newman, defense attorney Mark Bennett, and the Chronicle's metro/state plagiarist Rick Casey. Indeed, we can't imagine why the move wouldn't draw praise, which is why we didn't see much need to comment on the obvious earlier in the week.
However, the real devil will be in the details. It's one thing to call for a regional DNA crime lab, which we agree is a good idea. In the meantime, however, the ongoing problem of confidence in the HPD Crime Lab looms, and apparently that is yet another problem that will pass from MayorWhiteChiefHurtt to the next administration. Local CompStat/policing activist Jay Wall reminds us that in 2005, the New York Times reported that the crime lab in 2002 had a testing backlog of nearly 19,500 rape test kits, and had only reduced that number to 10,000 by 2005; he rightly asks why HPD wasn't performing those tests back then. We haven't heard where the number stands today, but we'd be shocked if the backlog has been eliminated. Clearly, we need leadership other than MayorWhiteChiefHurtt to move this forward, so kudos to Pat Lykos for taking it on. We hope she makes it a real priority.
We were amused that one Democratic activist welcomed the move, but nonetheless spun it as Lykos stealing Clarence Bradford's DA campaign proposals. This same activist neglected to mention that one big reason the HPD Crime Lab was dysfunctional at the time of the Rachell case was the mismanagement of HPD's chief at the time, none other than Clarence Bradford.
Bradford, incidentally, is currently running for the City Council At-Large Position 4 seat.
The full Rachell Report is available on the Chronicle website here, in pdf format.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/15/09 07:03 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)
18 May 2008
Helfman, et al., call for audit of HPD crime reporting
In their latest op-ed on Houston crime, Alan Helfman, Jay Wall, and Bill Wolff call for an audit of HPD's crime reporting.
They make a persuasive case:
What is the true state of crime in Houston? Unfortunately, neither we nor the leaders of HPD know for sure. Basic answers to basic questions are impossible to ascertain with any degree of certainty.
Perhaps the most striking example of this was provided in the recent news stories surrounding HPD's crime counting methods. Just before ThanksgivingIn late November 2007 [sic], KHOU's (Channel 11) Mark Greenblatt revealed that HPD underreported murders in both 2005 and 2006. In perhaps the most egregious case to date, the HPD classified the death of Stephen McCoy, who suffered three gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the back of the head, as a "suicide."
Other homicides, in one instance two deaths indisputably by arson, were put into the limbo category of "under investigation." Cases "under investigation" (as to cause of death) may not be classified as murders.
Thus far, due largely to Greenblatt's prodding, six Houston cases "under investigation" have recently been reclassified as murder by HPD.Far from the norm, miscounting murders is significantly more than just a disagreement about interpreting facts or applying rules. Dr. Lawrence Sherman, dean of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania has said, "There is something fundamentally wrong with the practices of the HPD in keeping count of its homicides. There appears to be a clear undercounting."
Other nationally recognized experts agree. Dr. James Fox, professor of law, policy and society at Northeastern University in Boston, a visiting fellow with the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Department of Justice and the man USA Today described as "arguably the nation's foremost criminologist," was asked directly if he thought the city of Houston was lying about its homicide statistics. He answered: "Well, someone is. Cases that are clear-cut homicides are not being counted."
Yet the beat goes on: The above example of McCoy's death has still not been reclassified to murder, only moved from the category of suicide to "under investigation."
Six cases may not seem like very many, a statistical blip easily repaired. But murder has long been considered a unique bellwether crime because, as Jack Maple, the late crime-fighter who organized CompStat under William J. Bratton in the NYPD once stated, "there are no secret police cemeteries" in which to hide the bodies.
Yet, now we find that in Houston, at least, such a place actually does exist, constructed out of paper much like the Potemkin villages that so pleased the Russian czar.
And the "sharp pencils" that Bratton so loathed were not confined only to the homicide squad. Examples of failures to properly count crimes in other categories abound. Year after year, HPD reported zero (as in none) cases of embezzlement; other recent press reports detailed the use of multiple sets of books to count DWI arrests.
[snip]
Were such similar, repeated and blatant errors committed in a publicly held corporation, the fallout would be swift and painful.
Please click over and read their op-ed in its entirety.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/18/08 09:18 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (24)
14 November 2007
Chief Hurtt's blog officially open for business
Chief Hurtt's blog is officially open for business. Here's the announcement from HPD:
Houston Police Chief Harold L. Hurtt is now a blogger! Recognizing the need for a quick, informal way to communicate with the Houston residents he serves, Chief Hurtt has started an online weblog (often referred to as a "blog") in order to keep you informed of department initiatives, goals, and activities.
[snip]
In his first post, Chief Hurtt said, "I'm hoping to use this forum as a tool to let you see some of the 'behind the scenes' good work done by the men and women of the Houston Police Department * the kinds of things you aren't likely to see on the news." He also encouraged Houstonians to learn more about helping the department "Keep Houston Safe," and to serve their community by taking advantage of some of the many volunteer programs offered by HPD.Chief Hurtt will be updating the blog on a regular basis. We encourage you to let your viewers and readers know about it, perhaps by including links to it from your own Web site.
Here is an excerpt from the Chief's first post (dated November 7):
I plan to use this forum as a tool to let you see some of the "behind the scenes" good work done by the men and women of the Houston Police Department … the kinds of things you aren't likely to see on the news. As you probably realize, the news media doesn't always show you the positive stories … and at HPD, there are lots of good, positive things going on. Despite the headlines, violent crime is down, and, for its size, Houston is a safe city. And there are things you can do, in partnership with HPD, to make it even safer. I encourage you to check this site periodically because I'm hoping to show you how you can help make a difference in your neighborhood and this city.
Public organizations often feel like they get shortchanged by the media, which tend to emphasize "negative" stories over "positive" ones (the notion being that HPD doing its job isn't news, but HPD screwing up is news), so the Chief has a valid complaint to some extent.
Then again, we hope the Chief -- and whatever ghostbloggers may be "helping" him -- will use the blog truly to engage Houstonians, instead of adopting another local organization's blog-model of serving up barely readable, features-style PR cheerleading. We'd love to see a true give and take from the Chief on problems such as the crime lab, staffing shortages, CompStat, broken-windows policing, downtown's out-of-control problem with vagrants, the sanctuary directive, and other issues (of course, we'd also like to see Chief Hurtt's department stop "punishing" reporters who are trying to do their jobs -- I guess we'll have to wait and see on both counts). We hope never to see a post from the Chief describing where some employees go to lunch.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Lone Star Times.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/14/07 12:40 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (11)
10 October 2009
Chron: METRO bigwigs, light-rail contractors really like Gene Locke (updated)
Recently, mayoral candidate Peter Brown promised to fire METRO bigwigs Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson and David Wolff if elected mayor.*
Mayoral candidate Annise Parker chimed in with a somewhat more subdued "me too" in her discussion of the matter with the Chron's Caucasian Think Tank.
This is a rare moment in our lackluster mayoral campaign in which we did not expect a "me too" (subdued or otherwise) from Establishment mayoral candidate Gene Locke. As we noted back in July, David Wolff already endorsed Locke with the maximum, $5,000 campaign donation, and Mr. Establishment does not strike us as the sort of candidate who would bite the hand that feeds him.
In today's Chronicle, Bradley Olson and Carolyn Feibel report that certain METRO board members and light-rail contractors have supported Mr. Establishment to the tune of $33,000 in contributions. Later in the story, we found these two grafs illuminating:
Metro Chairman David Wolff also held a March 17 luncheon for Locke to which he invited more than 70 people. Within two weeks of the event, people on that list of invitees had donated $24,500 to Locke's campaign. In the past nine months, those on the luncheon list have donated $46,000.
City ordinance bars appointees to city boards and commissions from soliciting contributions for political candidates; they are not prohibited from giving themselves.
We're sure Wolff has a creative definition of "soliciting" that would explain away all those donations to Locke as mere coincidence (although strangely, the newspaper did not seem to press him for that definition). Indeed, The Houston Way requires no less of the Establishment and its candidates.
UPDATE: The really curious thing about this story -- which involves some nice work tracking down the invitees of Wolff's "non-soliciting" meeting and how so many eventually donated to Locke -- is why the Chron editors sought to bury their reporters' good work. It's a two reporter story that uncovers some new elements of The Houston Way at work on behalf of the Establishment mayoral candidate, and instead of giving it Sunday front-page treatment, the Chron buried it on B5, above the life insurance ad and opposite the legal notices on B4 -- not the highest-profile pages in the newspaper! Are editors at the establishment newspaper also in the tank for Mr. Establishment Candidate? It certainly begs the question.
BLOGVERSATION: Fireballs, Lightning Bolts and Hell Storms.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/10/09 09:10 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)
09 September 2008
City, vendor negotiate agreement on muni courts computer system fiasco
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reported today that the City of Houston will get back some of the millions it has wasted on a deeply flawed computer system for the municipal courts:
The city will receive $5 million in a settlement with the company that designed a problem-plagued computer system at Municipal Courts, according to a copy of the deal.
Maximus Inc. also has agreed to waive millions more in support and maintenance costs over the next two years, says a proposal the City Council is set to consider Wednesday.
The settlement marks a turning point for city officials, who have considered litigation against the company while watching it struggle to implement a complicated, paperless case-management system.
Now, it appears the city could look to a new vendor to build a different system, but will continue using Maximus for as long as three to four years, according to the agreement.
City Councilman Ronald Green, a lawyer who has held hearings about Municipal Courts reforms, said city officials were not clear enough to the company about its needs when the contract was approved in 2003. Nor, he said, did Maximus understand the scale of the courts, where more than 2 million people visit annually.
"Everybody underestimated what the city needed to move into the 21st century," he said. "Everybody takes some blame. It wasn't all Maximus' fault. But it wasn't all the city's fault, either."
[snip]
Other city officials declined to make public comments because the settlement contains a "Non-Disparagement" clause.
"Maximus and the city agree to issue a joint release characterizing the settlement in a neutral manner — specifically that the parties have determined that in light of the current circumstances that it is in the parties' best interest to modify their existing relationship," it reads.
Stiles' measured reporting really doesn't convey just how big (and expensive) a fiasco this has been for the city (unfortunately, it is doubtful that the Chronicle's weak metro columnists will give the matter the treatment it deserves -- oh how nice it would be to have a real metro columnist like some cities, but that is not the topic of this post). Cory Crow has some salient thoughts on the matter. We're going to stick with the more succinct "fiasco." Check that -- FIASCO.
However, after perusing the critical posts in our own archives (the tone of which no doubt prompted some enablers of the city's entrenched elites to proclaim we were being mean and overly negative), we thought it might be fun to provide a sampling of what some city officials had to say as the FIASCO progressed, along with some snippets from various reporting. It will all be posted beneath the [Read More] link. Enjoy (and especially keep some of the comments from city officials in mind when you see city officials today claiming that the Real Time Crime Information Center is "CompStat on steroids," talking about "bridging the digital divide," and other assorted nonsense)!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/09/08 11:26 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)
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