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27 December 2005

Mayor White wants FEMA to help fund HPD

So...MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have come up with a plan to deal with HPD's manpower shortage:

They point out that the hurricane evacuees who came to Houston have increased the city's population making a bigger job for the city's police force.

And because the city's overall population has increased since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the mayor is optimistic that FEMA will pick up the tab.

Except that Houston's police shortage and related crime problems did not begin when Hurricane Katrina evacuees began rolling into town:

HPD manpower issues begin to affect public parks (9/29/2004)

Hurtt on manpower issues: patrol city desks more vigorously! (10/25/2004)

Maybe White/Hurtt Could Put A Camera On Her house? (12/25/2004)

HPD wants to use unpaid, reserve officers to fill the gaps (3/21/2005)

Another manifestation of HPD's manpower shortage (4/12/2005)

Northside neighborhood losing touch with HPD (KHOU-11, 4/26/2005)

Neighborhood residents complain about MS-13, HPD reaction (4/29/2005)

HPD reallocates resources to deal with MS 13 (5/12/2005)

Tenants on alert after rash of aggravated robberies at complex (KHOU-11, 5/15/2005)

Police Shortage Affects HPD Response Times (KPRC-2, 5/20/2005)

Student asks city to fight murders, shootings, other crime (5/22/2005)

Multi-agency task force targets MS-13 (5/25/2005)

Armed robbers hit Galleria-area pharmacy (6/10/2005)

Up Close: Life is tough in the 'Gulfton Ghetto' (KHOU-11, 6/17/2005)

DeLay criticizes, White/Hurtt support, HPD sanctuary policy (8/07/2005)

HPD warns it may cut services to fund crime lab investigation (8/15/2005)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ HPD"> 12/27/05 11:58 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

14 February 2006

Ada Edwards: What HPD manpower shortage?

KTRH-740 posts a news report on HPD's manpower shortage:

Houston's population increased by more than 100,000 new residents last year, but nearly 625 police officers quit the force.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt says the city needs to commit to a hiring program. Hurtt notes the number of officers per square mile in Houston is less than eight, while the country's next biggest city — Chicago — has nearly 60.

Hurtt says if the police department doubles the number of classes they're holding now — from five to 10 a year — the city could reach the national average by 2008.

Even with overtime programs, response times for lower priority calls are still increasing.

This blog continues to note manifestations of HPD's manpower shortage (here are two recent posts).

The Chronicle's Alexis Grant reports today that HPD and the police officer's union have worked out an agreement that will give HPD more flexibility to recruit experienced officers from elsewhere in response to the manpower shortage. The story concludes with this criticism from Councilmember Ada Edwards:

Councilwoman Ada Edwards said the city needs to fund schools and create jobs to decrease crime before putting more officers on the streets.

"I am not interested in developing a police state here," she said.

Laurence Simon's comment on another topic seems to fit here as well:

Welcome to Houston: We're Off Our Meds!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD manpower shortage?"> 02/14/06 09:22 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (9)

21 March 2005

HPD wants to use unpaid, reserve officers to fill the gaps

Here's an eye-opening story in the Chronicle:

Reserve officers — part-timers who work without pay but have full arrest powers — could return to the ranks at the Houston Police Department under a plan senior department officials are evaluating.

THIS is how HPD is going to address its manpower shortage, with part-time officers who aren't paid but have full powers to arrest?!

Officials want to know if adding reserve officers could help address the department's manpower troubles, including the effects of having large numbers of officers retiring at once.

"We have definitely talked about it," Chief Harold Hurtt said recently. "I had some of my staff research the required training for reserve officers, (but) we have not made a decision."

Thankfully, not everyone thinks it's a good idea:

Any plan that uses reserves would require approval from city leaders and, perhaps more challenging, from the Houston Police Officers' Union.

"We're absolutely against reserves," said Mark Clark, the union's executive director and an HPD officer for more than 20 years. "I don't think anybody inside the department would be in favor of that."

And what would be the benefit of using reserves?

Some agencies see reserve programs as a way to cut expenses. Officials with the Harris County Sheriff's Department said the agency saves about $2 million a year.

"They are a tremendous asset," Sheriff Tommy Thomas said. "They are supplementing our manpower. There's no question about that."

Hurtt didn't know what kind of financial benefits the department could reap if reserves are brought on board. An initial cost for training and providing weapons and equipment for the part-time officers is expected, he added.

I seriously doubt that Hurtt doesn't know what kind of financial benefits HPD would see by using reserves, since the story points out that Phoenix, where Hurtt was chief, has used reserves before. Hurtt also says there is an initial cost to train and equip the part-time officers. Why not use that money to actually work on some permanent, full-time officers?

Houston officials need to stop viewing HPD in terms of revenue. It is not the mission of HPD to be a revenue generator or a revenue saver. We have HPD babysitting SAFEclear, pushing for red light cameras and even speed radar cameras, and now wanting to use reserves to avoid dealing with a shortage of police officers and save some money at the same time. How long would Chief Hurtt like to use reserve officers to fill the gaps? Will HPD EVER deal with its manpower shortage?

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Let me take a glib stab at Anne's last question -- HPD will deal with the manpower shortage once it becomes so acute that the Mayor and his Council are held accountable by citizens who are irate by skyrocketing crime. We aren't quite to that point just yet, but since Mayor White and the current council seem unwilling to tackle this problem head on (because it involves spending money, and they seem to have other priorities), we will reach that point.

Sadly, it will probably come after this current crew is gone, and after Mayor White has successfully run for his next office. Then, our local newspaper will probably be wondering why he didn't tackle HPD's manpower issues when he was mayor! Citizens and taxpayers, as usual, will have to deal with the problem (just like we are now dealing with various problems left over from Mayor Brown's administration).

Posted by Anne Linehan @ HPD wants to use unpaid, reserve officers to fill the gaps"> 03/21/05 10:46 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

05 February 2006

When TV reporters tackle social-science modelling...

KHOU-11 ran a story on Friday that purported to determine the effect of Katrina refugees on Houston crime:

So we calculated New Orleans' murder rate before Katrina. We then used that to estimate how many more murders there would be among 150,000 new residents, the estimated number of evacuees now living here.

We then compared that to how many murders there'd be using Houston's lower murder rate.

The result: if evacuees were involved in murders at the same rate in Houston as they were back in New Orleans, Houston would register about 80 more murders a year, or about seven more a month.

Using Houston's lower rate, there'd be only about 2 more murders a month.

The reality is that since September, HPD says there have been 26 Katrina-related murders, or about five a month.

In other words, Katrina evacuees seem to be involved in murder at a rate not quite as high as back in New Orleans, but higher than Houston's.

If the murders continue, Houston's overall murder rate would rise.

But will that really happen?

Consider what has happened at Fred Bhandara's complex.

Since the murder there in December, HPD has flooded this area with task force officers.

The complex added its own security patrols and Crime Watch program.

They've had no more murders at the complex.

About all this exercise tells us is that we have seen an increase in violent crime following the influx of Katrina evacuees. It's not unreasonable to ask if a criminal element among the Katrina evacuees is disproportionately responsible for the increase. But it's also important to keep in mind that HPD's manpower shortage was a problem before the influx of Katrina refugees. It may well be that the spike in violent crime is also reflective of that manpower shortage (though perhaps the Katrina influx has exacerbated the problem). A properly specified model would take that into consideration.

Now that the local press is finally reporting on HPD's manpower shortage with some regularity, MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are cognizant of the need to get someone else to pay for them to boost HPD's manpower after several years of indifference:

HPD will be asking Uncle Sam for $40 million to fund 400 new officers.

And crime stats will be used to make it's case: Houston needs help.

More power to MayorWhiteChiefHurtt if they can convince the feds to help us out, but the manpower problem is mostly one of our ~~own~~ politicians' making.

RELATED: New Orleans failures led crime here (Kim Cobb, Houston Chronicle).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/05/06 11:27 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

31 July 2005

Chronicle reports on HPD manpower shortage

The Chronicle's Anne Marie Kilday reported Friday on the graduation of 63 new officers from the Houston Police Academy:

After 26 weeks of intensive training, 63 new police officers were sworn in at graduation ceremonies from the Houston Police Academy on Friday night, a giant step for them and a small step toward reducing a serious staffing shortage in the department.

[snip]

The graduates will boost a police department that is struggling with a lack of officers.

The department currently employs 4,365 officers, compared with 5,384 officers in 1996. More recently, about 660 officers have retired since a 14 percent pay raise went into effect in April 2004. Many had been waiting to retire with the increased pension benefits the raise allowed.

Hurtt said earlier this week that it would take about five academy classes each year to return to 1996 staffing levels by 2009 or 2010.

It's good to see the Chronicle give some coverage to HPD's manpower shortage. Aside from KHOU-11, most major Houston media have been strangely silent about the problem, allowing Mayor White and his Council largely to ignore it.

It still needs to be more of a priority.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD manpower shortage"> 07/31/05 08:42 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)

05 July 2005

Aiyer addresses HPD manpower shortage

Jay Aiyer, a candidate for City Council's At Large 2 seat, has posted his thoughts on HPD's manpower shortage as well as a proposal to get more officers trained and on the streets.

Here are excerpts from Aiyer's blog:

The reality is that Houston is facing a public safety crisis. We simply do not have enough police officers patrolling the streets of Houston, or enough fire fighters, and the problem is getting worse. In a study conducted by the Houston Police Officer’s Union, the number of police officers was tracked and analyzed over the last 10 years.

The results speak for themselves. In 1995, Houston had over 5000 police officers. By 2001, that number had slightly increased to just over 5300, with an additional 300 overtime equivalents. Today that number has dramatically dropped to 4800. That means Houston had 250 more police officers in 1995 than it does today. Compounding the problem is that Houston now has 400,000 to 500,000 more residents living in the city than in 1995.

[snip]

Why have we not trained more new officers? Cost -- it currently costs the city of Houston $2.8 million for a cadet class of 70. That number doubles when the overall cost of operations of the Police Academy is factored in. Fiscal reality makes any dramatic increase in training difficult under our current system.

There is an answer to this problem.

Be sure to check out the rest of Aiyer's detailed post for his answer.

In reviewing the websites of various candidates for council, we see that most candidates are in favor of maintaining police, fire, and EMS protection. That's a no-brainer.

We'd like to see all council candidates (including incumbents) follow Aiyer's lead in talking about HPD's manpower shortage and how the city should deal with it, in detail.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD manpower shortage"> 07/05/05 09:52 AM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)

30 November 2005

Mayor comments on HPD's manpower problems

Nothing causes the White Administration to swing into action like negative reporting, and so several media reports on HPD's worsening manpower woes and four hours of criticism from Chris Baker yesterday in response to Chief Hurtt's "solution" to the problem was sure to provoke a rapid response. The mayor's communications team certainly had to be pleased with KPRC-2's coverage:

The Houston mayor's office fought back Wednesday against charges that a staffing shortage at the Houston Police Department has resulted in crime victims waiting hours for help.

The Houston Police Officer's Union said Tuesday that for lower-priority calls in October, some crime victims waited up to 12 hours and 39 minutes for an officer to arrive.

The mayor's office and the union agree that response times are good for Priority 1 calls, which are the highest-level calls for violent crimes in progress.

But they disagree over the response times for the lower-priority calls.

City leaders said they are also concerned over reports of slow police response times.

But Mayor Bill White referred to a report compiled by the FBI that ranked HPD as No. 1 with a response time of less than five minutes for Priority 1 calls.

"I think there's no crisis citywide, although there's some real problems in certain neighborhoods that we're having in crime," White said.

What was that we were saying about gaseous emissions from downtown pols just a few days ago?

Mayor White's proposal doesn't sound bad, at least for something that seemingly was crafted overnight:

The mayor proposed several changes that could put more Houston police on the street, including moving up cadet classes, and reassigning officers who work in low-crime areas to high-crime neighborhoods.

The mayor also proposed recruiting retired officers to help fill in the gaps. But that idea was shot down by the union.

"If it's merely a support position, then that doesn't give me too much heartburn. But I'm going to have to see details," said Hans Marticiuc, with the police union.

Marticiuc said the city should focus on hiring new officers instead of recruiting retirees.

"At some point, the city is going to have to face the fact that in order to provide the necessary public safety that I think everyone wants and needs, it's going to cost a little bit of money," he said.

All solutions need to be on the table, and city leaders should have been thinking about this problem years ago. Still, it's good that the local media and Mayor White are beginning to think about it more seriously now.

ARCHIVES: HPD's manpower shortage.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD's manpower problems"> 11/30/05 09:55 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

09 February 2008

Local media expose dismal state of HPD's leadership

In one fell swoop yesterday, three local media stories demonstrated the woeful state of Chief Hurtt's leadership at HPD.

First, KHOU-11's Vicente Arenas reported on HPD's efforts to attract quality cadet recruits, especially critical now with the department's severe manpower shortage. Unfortunately, it's not going so well, even after HPD ~~lowered~~ "tweaked" standards:

Starting pay for cadets is about $30,000 dollars a year.

Many people have applied for jobs as police officers, 300 last Fall alone. But only 11 got the job at a time when about 1,000 officers are needed to fill HPD’s ranks.

HPD said, despite the shortage of officers, it would not lower its standards to get new cops on the streets.

But 11 News has learned some of the academy's physical requirements have changed. Cadets are not required to do as many pushups and they no longer have to climb walls.

HPD says it only "tweaked" the requirements and they still meet national guidelines. Still Ramos worries the academy's standards may not be strict enough.

And six cadets have been let go recently due to criminal activity.

Next, KHOU's Jeremy Desel snagged an interview with HPD Crime Lab Director Irma Rios, who said that while times are tough, and morale is low, the department really is a good steward of the public's money:

The Bromwich Report into the old lab’s troubles cost the city $5.1 million.

The new lab has received $3.4 million in grants for DNA testing, instruments, training and consultants.

The budget for the crime lab doubled.

All told, more than $10 million was spent to get the new DNA lab up and running.

Still, the lab is not testing all the cases that come to HPD.

"They estimate there are over 2,000 unsolved murders,” said Rios. “Can we do that? We can't. We are building up the lab.”

Breaking down the spending a little further 11 News discovered that in 2005, while the DNA section of the lab was closed, the city spent $725,704 on testing at three outside labs.

In 2006, the lab reopened in July. As you might expect the spending dropped considerably to $258,597.

But last year, with the new lab up and running, the city still spent $336,230.24 on outside testing. And so far this year, even before the lab shut down again, the city had spent $205,446.04.

[snip]

So, despite spending millions, it’s back to the beginning at HPD.

"Going forward I can tell you that we are being good stewards of the public's money,” said Rios. “And that we want that the work that is issued or reports that are issued are the best.

What KHOU's transcript doesn't include is what Rios said right after that sentence (it's on the video): "and that cost not be an objective on that." Even if the end product doesn't match those high standards, Ms. Rios? You'll recall cost was an objective when it came to the Bromwich investigation, with city officials initially balking at the rising cost of sorting out the crime lab's mess.

And then get a load of this: KTRK-13's Gene Apodaca reports that Chief Hurtt thinks HPD needs a new place to call home...and it's going to cost at least a quarter of a billion dollars. Hang on to your wallet for this one:

The plan consolidates several HPD buildings, including those on Travis and Reisner. And it replaces the troubled crime lab and property room. We've been telling you about problems there for months.

It's an expensive plan, $250 million. But the city has been working on this project since last March and they're hoping to complete the new facility as early as 2011 with a $250 million price tag.

[snip]

Under the current proposal, five existing HPD buildings would be sold -- 1200 Travis, which houses administration and investigations, three facilities on Reisner, which house the city jail, central patrol, and transportation, along with 33 Artesia, which houses maintenance and communication.

The city is hoping to make more than $70 million on sale. The general services department would have to come up with the rest.

"Not only is it a nice place to work, it's a place where we can be more effective and efficient in providing services," said Chief Hurtt.

[snip]

Among the benefits, the chief says, would be a new crime lab and property room, replacing the troubled ones HPD currently has.

"The crime lab is going to be in there," said Chief Hurtt. "We're going to be able to have a top notch crime lab center."

Wow. So the soccer stadium and the new convention center hotel aren't the only big budget projects the city's been working on below the radar.

Here's a question for Chief Hurtt: Since HPD's leadership hasn't been a good steward of the public's money for quite a while now (spending money on all the latest techno gadgetry, while not maintaining facilities, ignoring manpower issues until it was too late, not budgeting for a $150 million digital emergency radio system that is long overdue, and throwing money away on a second incarnation of the crime lab), how is this going to be any different?

They may not have enough police officers, their radio network may be out of date, and their crime lab findings may be unreliable, but boy, HPD officials will have mighty fine digs to call home. Image, baby.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ HPD's leadership"> 02/09/08 04:30 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)

22 May 2006

Hurtt: It's cheaper to hire civilian pseudo-cops than real cops

Last week, Anne Linehan noted that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are proposing to hire civilians to handle some calls that normally are handled by trained law-enforcement professionals.

As KTRK-13 reported Friday, Hans Marticiuc is critical of the proposal:

"There's a lot of issues going about," said Houston Police Union President Hans Marticuic [sic]. "Is this the best use of money?"

Marticuic takes issue with the mayor's proposal. Not only does he think the money could be better spent elsewhere, he's not sure the public will respect a civilian the way they would a cop.

"There's a distinction between a police officer and someone else who is just working out there with the uniform who doesn't really have any authority or power," he told us.

What is most interesting about the KTRK report is not Marticiuc's criticism, but this paraphrase of Chief Hurtt:

Chief Hurtt says in the long run, it would be less expensive to do this than hire more officers.

Perhaps the paraphrase isn't accurate, but that sure makes Chief Hurtt sound unconcerned about HPD's critical manpower shortage, since the civilian officer proposal should, at most be considered a possible short-term solution to a manpower shortage at HPD that went ignored for too long by Houston's pols.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/22/06 07:28 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

14 November 2007

GPS clearly shows HPD's manpower shortage (updated)

KTRK-13's Ted Oberg discovered that HPD's new GPS system affords the department the ability to know exactly where its officers are at any time. As Oberg also discovered, it shows how woefully short on personnel HPD is:

The mayor promises that one day...

"The criminals are going to have their hands full with HPD," said Houston Mayor Bill White.

But an Eyewitness News analysis reveals it's the other way around. HPD has its hands full just covering the city.

This summer, HPD outfitted patrol cars with GPS tracking devices. As officers drive around Houston, the devices send signals every few seconds detailing exactly where the patrol car is. It allows police dispatchers to see which officer is closest to a crime scene, but also reveals the secret of just how few officers are patrolling our city.

According to our analysis, there is an average of 268 officers available for 911 calls city wide any time of the day; not many when you consider a Houstonian calls 911 every 30 seconds. The highest number of on-duty units is at 3pm when there are 395. But at that hour, more than a third of them are parked at police substations.

The lowest number of units is at 2am, when just 186 officers are available to answer your call for help. It's also when Crime Tracker shows violent crime is near its daily peak.

"There just aren't enough and obviously your GPS will make someone think that," said Hans Marticiuc with the HPD Officers Union.

In the last year, the bodies of six women have been dumped in Acres Homes.

"Whoever is perpetrating these crimes believes the Acres Home community is a dumping ground and that they can do it and nobody is going to say anything," said HPD Assistant Chief Mike Dirden.

But maybe the killer knows no cops are watching. The last body was found in Acres Homes September 22. The GPS data from 10pm the night before shows the closest officer a mile away. At midnight, 1am and 2 am, there are officers on big streets, but not in the neighborhood where bodies have been dumped for more than a year.

"We just pray for more officers," said Acres Homes resident Roman Spiller.

When crime is peaking at 2 a.m., HPD has just 186 officers on patrol.

For years MayorWhiteChiefHurtt were warned that a manpower shortage was imminent, and for years, every other pet project was given a higher priority. Now that the mayor has decided to get serious about it, the city is having trouble recruiting officers, officers are left without ready backup, and (increasingly) citizens must fend for themselves in the critical early moments when a crime occurs.

UPDATE: On his blog, Ted Oberg notes that HPD officials aren't big fans of his, and in fact no one would go on-camera to discuss this story with him. Ah well. Maybe Chief Hurtt will blog about it.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: HPD's refusal to speak with Oberg on this report and others, if true (and there is no reason not to believe Oberg), is stunningly arrogant and unprofessional. Even if HPD feels that a previous story by Oberg was problematic, the fact is that Oberg is a high-profile reporter for a well-regarded local news organization, and HPD is not helping to inform the public with petty "punishment" of reporters doing stories that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt may not like.

PREVIOUSLY: KPRC: HPD response times continue to worsen

RELATED STORIES: Store owner, 2 others killed in separate shootings (Chronicle), Slain grocer remembered as generous (Chronicle), Teen charged with murder in Houston man's death (Chronicle), Friends grieve loss of 3 found slain in burning home (Chronicle)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ HPD's manpower shortage (updated)"> 11/14/07 05:12 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

28 December 2005

That's why they're called Mrs. White

Now that television stations are reporting a spike in violent crime and MayorWhiteChiefHurtt can no longer ignore HPD's manpower shortage, it's not surprising that the Mayor's press office has turned to the previously disinterested Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists to trumpet the administration's short-term "fixes" for the problem:

The mayor has asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide $6.5 million for a police task force to focus on troubled areas. This would be a good use of federal funds.

The White administration is expected to push an ordinance next year that will require apartment complexes registering a high number of calls for police assistance to hire in-house security officers to protect residents. Such a law would allow for round-the-clock deterrence and law enforcement in high crime areas and make maximum use of regular police patrols.

It's only fair that apartment complex owners reaping increased revenues from storm-induced high occupancy rates should shoulder their share of the increased security costs. Their residents — and the city — will be safer from the threat of criminal activity. Vigorous anticrime measures are essential to making the rise in homicides a statistical anomaly rather than a long-term trend.

It would be lovely if Mayor White could con the federal government into supplying funds to rectify the HPD manpower shortage he inherited and largely ignored until recently, but a "task force" isn't much of a solution to the problem.

And Mayor White's notion of effectively privatizing policing for people who have the misfortune to live in high-crime areas is as offensive as his (and Dan Patrick's) original SAFEclear notion that people without $75 should stay off of local freeways.

The Editorial LiveJournalists (like MayorWhiteChiefHurtt) really haven't been that interested in HPD's manpower shortage over the last few years. If this is all they have to offer, maybe they shouldn't have bothered. But then, they do have Sedosi's nickname of Mrs. White to live up to.

RELATED: Mayor White's plan for crime -- let other people pay for it! (Lone Star Times).

PREVIOUSLY: Murders skyrocket; HPD chief says good luck protecting yourselves, Continuing the discussion of HPD's woes.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/28/05 09:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

15 June 2008

The definition of insanity, Harris County style (Off the Kuff)

Charles Kuffner laments the "insanity" of Harris County wanting to expand its space to lock up bad guys (Off the Kuff).

In their provocative book Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner argue persuasively that the significant reduction of crime in America in the 1990s can be attributed to three significant factors: 1) the impact of abortion, 2) higher rates of imprisonment, and 3) increased number of police.

Their abortion linkage, while interesting, is not very instructive to policymakers.

Locally, however, the other two factors are extremely important for crime policy. HPD's manpower shortage is a significant problem for area crimefighting, a direct result of of former Mayor Brown's policies and the seeming indifference of current Mayor Bill White, so significantly boosting HPD manpower almost certainly will fall to Bill White's successor.

Compounding HPD's manpower issues by undoing the positive effects of higher rates of punishment (and the prison capacity for the same) would be a big mistake, though. We hope more sensible thinking will prevail at the county level.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/15/08 05:12 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati | Comments (0)

29 November 2005

Continuing the discussion of HPD's woes

Chris Baker (KTRH-740) is asking listeners, "How safe do you feel?," as he discusses the state of HPD and Houston crime. (Here's the link to Kevin's excellent post from last night.)

He also wonders why the city won't do anything about graffiti, another topic that bH has covered, since graffiti is symptomatic of gang activity, and gang activity breeds crime.

Also, Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, is publicly criticizing HPD Chief Hurtt:

Hans Marticiuc, President of the Houston Police Officers' Union, analyzed data from a sampling of police districts and charged that some citizens telephoning in emergency calls for, even the most violent of crimes, had to wait hours before an officer was even dispatched to help.

“And these calls ranged from burglaries, burglaries of motor vehicles, shootings, robberies, robberies with weapons, sexual assaults, assaults, disturbances,” Marticiuc said.

The police union president had harsh words for Chief Harold Hurtt, whom he implies is incapable of leading the city's police force.

“If this is the best police chief in the country, then I think the country may be in trouble,” Marticiuc said.

According to Marticiuc, during a heated discussion with the police chief, there was some mention that Chief Hurtt might lose his job over the data.

Marticiuc forwarded his data to Houston City Council members who are expected to raise questions at Tuesday afternoon's City Council meeting.

Marticiuc said the city should immediately increase police presence by instituting and overtime program similar to the plan introduced in the 1990s by former Mayor Bob Lanier.

To date, the most lip service MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have given to HPD's manpower shortage is to say that the city's new red light cameras will free HPD officers from traffic duty.

So, as Chris Baker asks, are Mayor White and Chief Hurtt fufilling the oaths they took?

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I heard an ad on KTRH that KTRK-13 will be running a story on HPD's manpower woes on the 6 pm broadcast.

KEVIN WHITED ADDS MORE: KHOU's Janice Williamson has a story tonight on MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's ridiculous "response" to the murder wave:

In the past three months, half the homicides in Houston took place in apartment complexes.

That has Chief Hurtt calling for change. "You know, you get in and you talk to the residents, you talk to management and you encourage people to get to know their neighbors to get to know who belongs in the area," he said.

Chief Hurtt also wants to force apartments that have too many calls, to hire their own security.

[snip]

Chief Hurtt is to meet with Mayor Bill White Wednesday

An ordinance requiring apartments to have extra security could be on the City Council agenda within the next couple of weeks.

That is absurd. It's bad enough that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are not doing their jobs. Council must stop rolling over for them, and insist they deal with HPD's manpower problem.

KPRC-2 also decided to report on the manpower shortage tonight:

"How many of those murders, before they ended up being a murder, was called in as a disturbance that we didn't show up at?" said Hans Marticiuc, with the Houston Police Officer's Union.

Marticiuc said the department is incapable of providing basic police services.

To back up the claim, the union analyzed police calls for the month of October in three high-crime districts. The analysis found that in over 500 calls for service, victims waited up to 12 hours and 39 minutes before dispatchers sent a patrol car. It took 8 hours and 29 minutes for an officer to be dispatched to a robbery, and a sex assault victim waited 5 hours and 23 minutes for an investigator to arrive.

The union puts the blame on HPD Chief Harold Hurtt.

"That is simply unacceptable," Marticiuc said.

Hurtt has not yet responded.

But the union took its complaints to Houston City Hall and to Mayor Bill White.

"This issue of people holding calls from intake and dispatch -- that's an issue that I think is a serious issue that I haven't quite got the right answer yet about what is going on there," White said.

Hasn't "quite got the right answer?!" MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have done their very best to ignore HPD's manpower shortage, and unfortunately the City Council and the city's media have mostly let them get away with it.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ HPD's woes"> 11/29/05 03:42 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (5)

14 February 2005

KTRK jumps on HPD manpower shortages

Following the lead of the Chronicle, which buried the news in its Saturday edition, KTRK-13 devoted a news segment tonight to HPD's looming manpower shortage.

This isn't exactly a new issue, as we've been pounding on it about as long as we've been in existence, and other people have been discussing it somewhat longer, but good for KTRK for giving it some coverage in a week when Mayor White and his council are concentrating on banning smoking.

The coverage sort of blows away a recent contention of one self-styled media watcher that local media outlets bury stories broken by their competition all the time. If anything, they all fall over themselves to report the same news. Unfortunately, they're all a little late to this party, but we welcome them just the same.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD manpower shortages"> 02/14/05 09:28 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (2)

28 November 2005

Murders skyrocket; HPD Chief says good luck protecting yourselves!

The Chronicle's Mike Glenn reports that the city's homicide rate has exceeded last year's after a deadly Thanksgiving weekend:

Houston had 274 homicides in 2004 and the killings during the four-day holiday weekend brought the figure for this year to 285.

[snip]

Detectives acknowledged that the number of cases they investigated during the four-day period seemed high, but police officials on Sunday could not say whether the figures amount to a dramatic increase from the same period last year.

Why not?

KHOU-11's Amy Tortolani fares a little better:

Houston police said they had 14 homicides to work over the holiday weekend. But is this a true indicator of the city's crime situation?

According to investigators, it was a record number of murders for the city.

So far there have been 285 murder victims in Houston this year. That number is 11 greater than the 274 victims in 2004, and there is still one month left in 2005.

Houston police have no explanation for the increase in murders.

Psst... HPD's manpower shortage perhaps? (Mayor White and his Council would prefer the city's journalists not bring up their inadequate response to that ongoing problem).

Chief Hurtt has this useful advice:

"Not only are we going to be doing it from a police department standpoint, I've also been talking to community groups about them becoming more active in crime prevention, protecting their own property as well as looking out for their neighbors," said Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

Translation: HPD is so short on manpower that it can't provide for the public safety as it has in the past. Good luck everyone!

UPDATE (11-29-2005): In the 10 pm broadcast, KHOU's Jeff McShan addressed HPD's manpower shortage:

Houston just set a record for holiday weekend murders and many want to know why.

Both the police chief and the mayor said they did not think hurricane evacuees factored into the crime numbers

When you call HPD, your calls go to Houston's Emergency Center (HEC).

But before they're dispatched to an actual officer who's working the streets there has to be one available. More often than you may realize, locating someone may take several hours.

This is true especially if you live on the city's west or southwest side.

"Anybody who either lives, shops or works west of the Galleria should really be concerned about this because this side of town is significantly undermanned," said Mike Cummings, Public Safety Director for the Westchase Business District. He is also a former HPD officer.

Now he hires off-duty HPD officers to patrol the 80 businesses in his business district, just to keep them safe.

Cummings spent hours going through public records and putting together a detailed report that shows the lack of police presence citywide.

"I looked at everything throughout the city and basically was able to determine, using several models, that the west side of town is significantly undermanned," Cummings said.

Cummings says to properly patrol the Westside District the department would need 506 officers. Right now they have just 403.

He also looked at numbers when it comes to violent crime.

"Based on the different studies that I did, just using the Westside Patrol area, it is anywhere from 70 to 113 officers down))

His report also shows that the Fondren and Southeast substations are severely short staffed.

A few months ago HPD Union president Hans Marticiuc told 11 News the staffing issue hinders officers' ability to fight crime.

"We're getting calls all the time. We've got officers working in districts by themselves. Sometimes roll calls are just two or three people for the entire roll call," he said.

Mayor White engages in spin at the end of the story, but the fact is that his administration's response to the manpower shortage has been inadequate, and that he's simply had other priorities.

UPDATE 2 (11-29-2005): The Chronicle now says the murder spree wasn't a record:

The weekend slayings, while by far outnumbering those of the past five years, are not the most ever in the city's history. On a single weekend in June 1981, from Friday evening to Sunday night, 21 people were slain in Houston.

Here's Chief Hurtt's proposed solution:

Hurtt said he has talked with Mayor Bill White about adopting an ordinance requiring apartment complexes with high rates of crime to hire security officers.

"We are very much concerned about apartment complexes," Hurtt said. "Anytime you have a large cluster of people living in an area like an apartment complex, there is always the opportunity for conflict, robberies and property crimes."

Frank Michel, the mayor's communication director, confirmed that Hurtt had met with White and discussed the idea of requiring security officers at high-crime complexes.

"The mayor is receptive to that idea," Michel said.

Translation: Good luck protecting yourselves, Houstonians!

MayorWhiteChiefHurtt simply are not serious about HPD's manpower shortage. The problem is not mentioned by the Chronicle. It probably wasn't mentioned in Chief Hurtt's press release or in the conversation with the administration's PR man Frank Michel.

UPDATE 3 (11-29-2005): KTRH-740 posts the following:

Some in the business community say the problem is a police staffing issue. The head of the police union is due at City Hall today to discuss his concern that police academy classes aren't keeping pace with retirements.

Business community? The head of the police union is part of the business community? KHOU (and the bloggers here) are part of the business community? Interesting label.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD Chief says good luck protecting yourselves!"> 11/28/05 10:19 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (6)

22 May 2005

Student asks city to fight murders, shootings, other crime

We can now add a high-school student troubled about rampant crime in his southwest Houston neighborhood to the blogHOUSTON chorus wondering when Mayor White and his council plan to address the Houston Police Department's manpower issues.

Here's an excerpt from Rick Casey's column today:

IT was not a situation Lee High School student Donald Hanks could easily have imagined.

Standing at a microphone in the school library Thursday night in front of a crowd of 200, he was politely but firmly asking for specific commitments from two City Council members and enough police brass for several school bells.

[snip]

They wanted help cracking down on the crime that has left four students and former students dead and seven more shot, that has drug dealers patrolling the neighborhood, that has prostitution run out of "spas" and rent-by-the-hour motels.

They asked for and received promises of:

•A police storefront office in the area.
•The closing of one particularly bad nightclub and efforts to identify and close other problem clubs.
•A school zone to cut down on speeding traffic on Hillcroft. (High schools are not normally given school zones.)
•An effort to increase the number of 70-member cadet classes from two to four to begin to make up for the loss to retirement of 500 Houston police of all ranks in the past 18 months.
•Monthly meetings with the Lee group to plan and assess crime-fighting efforts.
•A commitment to conduct a study to determine the number and kinds of crimes being committed in the school's area.

Mayor White and his council enacted SAFEclear under the guise of public safety. They plan on installing red-light cameras under the guise of public safety. They have banned smoking under the guise of public safety.

Why won't they address HPD's worsening manpower difficulties, which are directly related to public safety?

UPDATE: KPRC-2 joins the chorus tonight as well, with a story entitled Police Shortage Affects HPD Response Times:

Last year, the Houston Police Department received more than 1.6 million 911 calls. Yet, the department is suffering through a critical manpower shortage. The shortage is now affecting how quickly officers are responding to some of the most urgent cries for help, the Local 2 Troubleshooters reported Sunday.

[snip]

[HPD Chief Harold] Hurtt said he knows his department is struggling to keep up in certain areas, but it's a problem that's not going to get better anytime soon.

"In the time since I've been here we've lost probably 500 officers. We're hiring them 70 at a time, so it's going to be a long time before we can catch up," Hurtt said.

Hans Marticiuc is the president of the Houston Police Officer's Union. He said it is not just the public, he's also hearing from officers who are worried about getting backup quickly.

"It's a concern and it ought to be a concern for the citizens," Marticiuc said. "I'm hoping our elected officials hear this stuff, see this information, and realize staffing over here has got to be the highest priority because it's a public safety issue."

It sounds as if KPRC shamed former HPD officer and current councilmember Adrian Garcia into promising to act on the manpower shortage. We'll have to keep watching to see if he follows through, or if he can interest Mayor White and the rest of council in this problem that this blog and KTRH-740's Chris Baker have been pounding on for a while.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/22/05 09:40 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

25 December 2004

Maybe White/Hurtt Could Put A Camera On Her house?

KTRK-13's Andy Cerota reports on a homeowner in southwest Houston who thinks the city of Houston is failing in its most basic obligation: public safety.

According to Cerota, Deidre Rasheed's southwest Houston home has been robbed and trashed four times in 45 days.

Now, she's giving in and planning on moving. But not before directing this towards municipal leaders:

Rasheed said, "No TV, cut wires. The police came -- didn't take fingerprints, didn't take any samples to see, to do any follow up investigation. They just left."

Rasheed wants more patrols in her neighborhood but understands that might be difficult since there's a shortage of officers working the streets. She blames city leaders for that -- arguing they've sacrificed citizen safety to balance the budget.

"The officers don't have that manpower," Rasheed admitted. "But at the same time, where does the buck stop? Who takes responsibility for this type of action within our government?"

As we've been pointing out for a while, HPD's ongoing manpower shortages have not been a priority for Mayor White and his Council. They continue to ignore the problem, declining to fund new cadet classes capable of resolving the shortages even as they find time and resources to expend on priorities such as Tasers and a new downtown park.

The city's only newspaper has not been interested in the HPD manpower issues (they have other priorities as well), and other media outlets (notably, KHOU-11, but now KTRK-13) have only nibbled around the edges.

Unfortunately, once Rasheed's misfortune becomes more widespread in the city and the major media discover this "problem," HPD's manpower shortages will be so acute that it will take several years of cadet classes to have an impact. That's why it's well past time for Mayor White and his Council to begin to deal with the problem.

Yes, we've been harping on HPD's manpower issues for a while now, and we'll likely continue. But, we're only a little blog, albeit one that some local media folks and pols read. In case those particular readers are wondering -- public safety is always a good story/issue. We're happy to give it to ya'll without credit, if it means a safer city. By all means, run with it!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/25/04 09:51 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

28 October 2009

HPD rolls out innovative new revenue stream (sans acronym, sadly)

KTRK-13 reports that HPD is rolling out a new program "to crack down on aggressive drivers."

One element of the program will involve plainclothes police officers standing on the sides of surface streets, creating a distraction for drivers by holding signs that say things like "Buckle Up" (and radioing ahead so tickets can be issued to those who aren't, of course).

An HPD officer poses as vagrant, says Buckle Up!

Apparently, nobody has told the geniuses who designed this innovative new municipal revenue stream that there is a manpower shortage at HPD and officers might be put to better use.

Image courtesy of Houston Police Department.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD rolls out innovative new revenue stream (sans acronym, sadly)"> 10/28/09 08:03 PM | General | Technorati | Comments (1)

12 May 2008

This seems like a good use of taxpayer dollars...

KHOU-11 reports that the City of Houston will decide whether or not to allocate $150,000 to defend Chief Hurtt's no facial hair policy:

The case centers around four Houston police officers who filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against HPD over their beards.

The officers have not been allowed to wear a uniform because of the department’s strict no facial hair policy.

Yeah, with HPD's manpower shortage, this idea was pure genius: Sideline four officers AND spend thousands of dollars!

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/12/08 07:15 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

17 January 2006

HPD's manpower shortage (cont'd)

HPD's multi-faceted attempt to address increasing crime and decreasing manpower may soon include luring police officers away from other Texas police departments:

"I'm sorry. it's business," said Lt. Kenneth Miller of the Houston Police Department's human resources division, which finds it cheaper and more efficient to hire certified peace officers from other cities instead of finding and training raw recruits. "We need good applicants, and if someone wants to come here (from another department), we'd be foolish not to take them. If someone were recruited here, we certainly wouldn't be offended."

A Houston City Council committee takes up the issue today with a planned discussion about authorizing HPD to begin offering in-state police officers a $7,000 bonus to make the move to Houston and enroll in a 12-week modified entry academy class that starts in March.

One problem that has HPD at a disadvantage is the pay:

[Miller] acknowledged, however, that HPD's starting salary could be a step down for some people coming from other large departments. An HPD officer in his first full year makes a minimum of $36,022, less than base salaries in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.

But the Austin Police Department, which pays its first-year officers almost $9,000 more than Houston does, has its own problems. Despite its attractive salary, the department has been struggling to keep its manpower at full force and has spent heavily on overtime — a familiar situation in Houston.

On to Sedosi who has his own thoughts on why police departments are having trouble recruiting good candidates:

Minority activists have painted the police as the enemy to its constituency, leading to the formation of a chasm of distrust between minority citizen's and the police that are charged to protect them. Selective enforcment of laws, miles of red-tape and bueracratic entanglements (not to mention the ever-looming threat of a lawsuit) have made it near impossible for police to fight crime and protect the citizens as is their charge.

There are now people walking around with video cameras in an attempt to capture "police violence" on a daily basis. Never mind that these "activists" very seldom are present to capture on tape the violent acts commited by the criminals which leads to the violent arrest. That's a problem for other's to figure out.

And then we sit and wonder why our children don't want to be police any longer?

Posted by Anne Linehan @ HPD's manpower shortage (cont'd)"> 01/17/06 12:23 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

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 @ 09/08/08 01:11 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

15 June 2005

McShan reports on HPD manpower shortage

Jeff McShan did some excellent reporting on HPD's manpower woes for KHOU-11 this evening.

The entire report should be read, but here are some excerpts:

For months, Houston police officers have been telling 11 News about what they're calling a severe shortage. They believe the shortage of police officers and detectives hinders their ability to fight crime, and often puts them in dangerous situations.

Union president Hans Marticiuc says he's hearing the cries for help, too.

"We're getting calls all the time," says Marticiuc, "We've got officers working a district by themselves, sometimes roll calls are two or three people for an entire roll call. The numbers just don't add up for the amount of calls that we have to cover."

If you live in Houston, you might be surprised to know that the number of officers working at HPD is actually 258 less than it was 11 years ago.

Since 1994: 893 officers have retired, 596 resigned, 412 were part of phase-downs, 156 were terminated and 60 officers died.

If you live in Houston and read this blog or listen to Chris Baker, you won't be surprised.

When asked how serious the situation is, "I think we're at a critical point. I think we're at a critical point and our council people need to prioritize here," Marticiuc says.

Mayor Bill White says he's working on a solution that includes adding five academy classes this year. There were none a year ago.

He blames the current situation on past administrations and an HPD retirement plan that wasn't fiscally responsible.

"The police contract was designed when I came in. It was designed to provide an incentive for people to see if they made the pay raise and then resign, because you paid on your retirement based on your last two weeks," says Mayor White.

The city has not been adding enough cadet classes. It's been a massive failure of leadership on the part of Mayor White and his council, as they've spent time and money on other priorities. Certainly, the Brown Administration did not leave matters in great shape, but he's gone. Mayor White has been in office long enough to tackle this problem -- or to focus on other issues, like Tasers and new badges for cops and downtown parks and finding overtime pay for some cops to harass downtown pedestrians. This is Mayor White's problem now, not Lee Brown's, and he has dropped the ball thus far.

"We're already at a point where we don't have enough officers on the streets to back each other up," says Marticiuc.

He says additional money for overtime to place officers where they are needed the most could help.

Council member Ada Edwards disagrees. "Over 80 percent of our budget goes to public safety, so for me it's not the dollars, it's the management and I don't know who's to blame, but I think we really need to talk about it."

That may be the first time in her political life Ada Edwards has ever suggested that it's not the dollars. Unfortunately, it IS partly the dollars. Cadet classes take money. Hiring police officers from other cities takes money. Keeping officers from retiring or seeking police jobs elsewhere takes money. It IS about the dollars, dollars that Mayor White and his council have diverted to other priorities.

Chief Hurtt says he knows his men and women in blue are short-handed.

"I think the citizens of Houston should really continue to support them because we all realize several years, we went without having any academy and several people have retired in the last year or so, but the Houston Police Department is up to meeting the challenge," says Hurtt.

We DO support the HPD rank and file. We just wish Mayor White, his council, and his police chief could help them out with some more bodies.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD manpower shortage"> 06/15/05 10:50 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (8)

16 February 2006

Aiyer: HPD should make use of HCCS public safety academy

Jay Aiyer penned an op-ed for the Chronicle today in which he touts the Houston Community College System's new Public Safety Academy as a potential partner for the City of Houston in dealing with HPD's manpower shortage.

The op-ed is a slightly modified version of a post that appeared on Aiyer's campaign blog last June.

BLOGVERSATION: Greg's Opinion.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD should make use of HCCS public safety academy"> 02/16/06 09:59 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (19)

29 January 2006

Editorial LiveJournalists discover HPD manpower woes, crime

The Editorial LiveJournalists have discovered that violent crime is threatening Houston:

In 1958, Houston had the nation's highest murder rate, with 15 homicides per 100,000 residents. In 1981, after Houston tallied more than 700 homicides, the city was dubbed murder capital of the United States. After years of diminishing crime rates, the number of violent crimes in the city again is ticking upward. This time, Houstonians must act to head off the next bloody crime wave before it crashes over us.

It would have been nice if Houston's only major daily had been out in front of this one a little earlier. HPD's manpower shortage is not new to anyone who's been paying attention. Still, better late than never we suppose.

We can't help but be amused at this language:

Hurtt said he is working with City Council to compel landlords whose apartment complexes are magnets for bad actors to hire police officers to provide security or to pay fees to cover additional police protection. That is a good idea. Most of the homicides that occurred during the last four months of 2005 took place at apartment complexes, though this type of housing constitutes only half of the city's dwellings. Apartment managers should be required to provide adequate lighting and evict bad actors.

Bad actors? Goodness, the Editorial LiveJournalists really do seem out of touch much of the time.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD manpower woes, crime"> 01/29/06 11:05 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

24 March 2005

Better late than never?

On March 21, the Chronicle's Mike Glenn reported that HPD is considering the use of reserve officers.

That same day, we commented that the move was, at best, an inadequate solution to HPD's manpower shortage.

Today, the Chronicle editorial board finally weighed in on this local issue, criticizing the potential use of reserve officers because of concerns over training. The editorial offers no suggestions for Mayor White and Council regarding their priorities (or lack thereof) for funding new HPD hiring.

One supposes incomplete and a little slow on local issues is better than never on the Chronicle editorial page. Perhaps the idealists were distracted by the death of Bobby Short.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/24/05 11:23 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (0)

12 February 2005

Chron finally covers HPD manpower woes

Some television stations, talk radio hosts, and this blog have been pointing out HPD's manpower shortages for some time.

The Chronicle finally took up the topic today, in a lengthy article by S.K. Bardwell. Here are a couple of excerpts to put the problem in perspective:

By year's end, the Houston Police Department will have lost an estimated 740 officers — as many as the city of Orlando employs — to retirement in a two-year period.

For comparison purposes, in 2003 the department lost 138 officers through retirement, resignation, termination or death.

And there may not be enough money available in the next two fiscal years to train replacements for even half the officers the department is losing. Or to hire the 1,000-plus civilians the department is missing.

[snip]

Still, there is unquestionably a crisis: HPD is currently authorized to have 6,398 officers. Hurtt's staff is still studying whether a force that size is adequate based on Houston's population and other factors, but the point is moot for now: Only 4,921 of those positions are filled, or about 77 percent.

In the best of times, it would take the Houston police academy three or four years to catch up, by turning out three 70-cadet classes per year.

These are not the best of times. Four academy classes are budgeted over the next two fiscal years, and optimally will bring 280 new officers into the fold.

Mayor Bill White said through an aide Friday that it is possible more money will be found for additional classes during that period.

The second bolded quote from the Mayor's office puts the first bolded quote in perspective.

As we've been pointing out for some time, public safety hasn't been of much interest to Mayor White and the current council unless it's been a matter of constructing a new revenue stream under the guise of "public safety." There is no public safety issue in the city right now that is more pressing than HPD's manpower shortage, yet Mayor White and his council have preferred instead to focus on other expensive, questionable priorities even within HPD.

That's their prerogative as elected officials, but the city's only newspaper -- which we're pleased to see has finally discovered this issue -- need not characterize it as anything but a matter of priorities. As the quote from the mayor's office and the experience with Tasers make clear, the city can find money to fund issues of public safety when officials decide they are a priority.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD manpower woes"> 02/12/05 03:37 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

31 January 2006

Acronyms and task forces can't mask manpower shortage

KHOU-11's Mike Zientek reports more disturbing news about HPD response times:

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt answered questions from 11 News about the slow response time to a hotel shooting that ended with a man in the hospital.

"If there are some shortcomings on our part we're going to review it and make sure it doesn't happen again," Chief Hurtt told 11 News.

The 11 News crew beat police to the scene and emergency crews waited for nearly 30 minutes for any sign of HPD.

[snip]

But what might be troubling is that an HPD spokesperson said the department tries to respond to calls like the one at the hotel in 12 minutes at the most. That same spokesperson told 11 News it took a lot longer than that.

According to HPD’s own timeline, a dispatcher got the call at 6:24 a.m., made two requests for units and received no response.

At 6:40 a.m. a supervisor from the day shift left for the scene.

He arrived at 7:01 a.m., 37 minutes after dispatch received the call.

In fact it took so long that the 11 News photographer recorded firefighters putting up crime tape—not police.

“There should have been somebody on the air, somebody in the city of Houston to answer that call,” Chief Hurtt said. “It’s not routine for the city of Houston. This was an extraordinary incident, again we’re in the process of reviewing it. If there are some shortcomings on our part we’re going to review it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

IF there are shortcomings?

*ahem*

Chief, when KHOU reporters beat the cops to a shooting scene, and firefighters get so restless that THEY string police tape, it's safe to say there was a shortcoming on the part of your department!

Unfortunately, since HPD manpower is stretched thin because politicians have ignored the problem for so long, this is the sort of thing we can expect to happen.

Look for MayorWhiteChiefHurtt to announce a new acronym or task force to tackle this latest problem soon.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ manpower shortage"> 01/31/06 07:03 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

02 October 2007

KHOU: Police union forces Mayor White to deal with manpower shortage (updated)

KHOU-11's Shern-Min Chow reports that Mayor White is being forced to loosen the city's purse strings:

Houston Mayor Bill White plans to make a major announcement about putting more police officers on the street. That announcement is scheduled to come Tuesday morning.

11 News has confirmed the move will mean hundreds of extra officers patrolling city streets. But only after some threats from the police union.

Turns out the manpower shortage has been a longstanding sore spot with police officers. Sources told 11 News that three weeks ago the Houston Police officers union met with the mayor to complain.

Word is the union indicated it would publicly slam the mayor and police chief if additional resources were not forthcoming.

That prompted tomorrow’s announcement in which the city will fund the increased patrols with sales tax revenues, which have been higher than anticipated, and $200 million from city reserves.

The money provides for overtime pay and additional HPD academy classes to create the additional manpower.

It's about time. Mayor White's lack of focus on protecting Houstonians has been incomprehensible, although, if he could have found a revenue stream in it, he'd have had more interest.

KHOU's story also notes that a Continental Airlines task force will assist HPD with its recruiting process.

RELATED: Police chief pledges more patrols in Acres Homes (Chronicle)

UPDATE: On a KTRH-740 newsbreak, Bonnie Petrie (sp?) said that the infusion of funds for HPD is the result of an unexpected increase in tax revenues.

Unexpected???

Not to anyone who's been paying attention!

Houston sales tax revenues booming for the month, year; Houston is rolling in the dough; Houston's sales tax revenue up almost 20%; COH and Metro thank you for your support!; Houston has a surplus and Mayor White doesn't want to share it

And a few more from the Houston Business Journal:

Houston's sales tax allocation up 4.1 percent; May sales tax revenue increases 10 percent; Sales tax payments up for Houston counties

That last link points to September's state tax allocation:

Houston itself received $38.6 million, up 12.6 percent from $34.3 million.

Houston's revenues have not unexpectedly increased.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Matt Stiles adds this:

BTW: Responding to a question, Marticiuc also denied a report last night on KHOU-TV (Channel 11) that said the union had pressured and even threatened White to make this financial committment.

"That is not accurate. We've had some earnest discussions with the mayor for some time."

I think "earnest discussions" falls in line with KHOU's story. =)

Posted by Anne Linehan @ manpower shortage (updated)"> 10/02/07 05:09 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (17)

19 March 2008

MayorWhiteChiefHurtt duck questions on HPD family-violence policy

In this week's Houston Press, Rich Connelly details another example of our city's fine leadership on crime:

Texas Observer recently took a look at the Houston Police Department's method of handling family-violence calls and came away decidedly unimpressed.

HPD officers, TO said, are not required — as officers in other agencies often are — to seek arrest warrants for alleged abusers who have fled the scene. Instead they just tell the victims to, essentially, be careful out there.

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt, who loudly proclaims domestic violence to be a priority, wouldn't talk with TO or with us, and the office of Mayor White — another loud proclaimer of the priority of fighting domestic violence — referred us to HPD.

Instead, the department spokesman was forced to talk substantively about the policy (or, rather, the lack thereof) and the department's manpower shortage.

Strange, but we think of that as MayorWhiteChiefHurtt's job -- especially since this is a pet issue (at least in speeches, sometimes).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD family-violence policy"> 03/19/08 10:40 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

09 December 2007

This could be part of the problem

What's the size of the copper theft division at HPD? KHOU-11's Lee McGuire tells us:

Just two police officers.

“It’s very difficult for us to keep up. 250 cases [per month], two people. You don’t have to be a genius to know that two people can’t keep up with 250 cases,” said Captain Ceaser Moore. He runs Houston’s crackdown on copper theft.

And for comparison, Houston’s elected officials are looking a bit longingly at Dallas. They have one sergeant, and 4 officers on scrap metal theft. That’s for a city with 12 scrapyards.

Houston, meanwhile, has one sergeant, one officer, and 115 scrapyards.

Council members Toni Lawrence and Adrian Garcia say they’d like Houston police to increase the number of officers on scrap metal patrol. But HPD is already short a thousand officers.

September 2004 is when this little blog first noted HPD's looming manpower shortage. Not much has improved since then.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/09/07 07:05 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (14)

10 June 2005

Armed robbers hit Galleria-area pharmacy

Remember that useful report by KPRC-2 that broke down HPD response times by police beat?

Here's a refresher on some key information:

The difference [in response times] comes from HPD having to compensate for a lack of manpower. The bulk of officers are deployed to areas with the highest crime, but that means neighborhoods with traditionally lower crime rates are left with fewer officers. That also means police take longer to respond to calls for help in these areas.

Criminals can figure out how HPD is deploying its resources.

Thus, when supposedly "low-crime" areas are left with fewer resources because of the manpower shortage that Mayor White and his Council continue to disregard, those areas may start to see some pretty brazen crimes:

Police are looking for robbery suspects Friday morning after they hit a pharmacy in southwest Houston.

The masked men were apparently armed with BB guns when they entered a CVS pharmacy on Richmond and Sage in southwest Houston.

The men allegedly made off with about $2,000 in cash,as well as some codeine and Prilosec.

None of the employees inside was hurt.

Richmond and Sage isn't some vague part of southwest Houston. Richmond and Sage is within walking distance of the Galleria (the city's finest shopping), not to mention the office where I work and the gym I use most of the time. It's not a part of town known for incidents of violent crime!

But criminals seem able to figure out when there's not enough of a police presence. Why is it so hard for our Mayor and his Council?

RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/10/05 07:59 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (1)

14 August 2006

HPD looks to retirees for help

Retired police officers will soon be helping to alleviate HPD's manpower shortage:

The first retirees began training Monday at Houston’s downtown police headquarters.

“We look at the background of the particular retired officer—how long they’ve been retired, what their particular service record is and the like—and find a job suitable for that officer,” said Houston Mayor Bill White.

11 News obtained an internal memo from Chief Harold Hurtt informing Mayor White that, by August 2, 199 retired officers had applied for part-time jobs and that 190 of them were retired HPD officers.

Nine were retirees from other law enforcement agencies.

The retirees will not work on the street like full-time officers.

But city officials said the part-timers will free up police for more active duty.

Jerry Defoor is president, Houston Police Retired Officers Association, “It’s probably going to be a majority of those folks will be in investigations. That’s where there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on the department, because there’s not enough folks available to do the background of the cases that don’t have a lot of detail.”

[snip]

Some officers still on the force privately said they don’t like this idea and think Houston just needs to hire more full time cops.

I'm curious to know what our HPD folks think of this new program.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ HPD looks to retirees for help"> 08/14/06 07:15 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (15)

15 December 2005

HPD trying to boost traffic-citation revenue stream?

Richard Connelly speculates that HPD may be under the gun to boost the traffic-citation revenue stream:

You may have noticed it around town lately -- a half-dozen or so cop cars at some intersection, pulling over motorists in order to give the cars a good inspection and find something to ticket.

We've seen at least two of the operations recently, and it looked like HPD was either stopping every car to find a desperate serial killer or checking for green cards in an illegal-immigrant crackdown. Instead it appears they're just trying to make up for lost revenue.

From July to September of this year, the municipal courts raked in about $1.2 million monthly in traffic fines. In October that figure fell to $950,000.

That's quite a slip. And no one in the city bureaucracy is eager to talk about it, or whether HPD is under the gun to get more cash flow to replace the loss.

Municipal courts director Richard Lewis -- or, to be precise, a "very busy" Richard Lewis, as he described himself when he finally deigned to answer questions -- said he couldn't offer any reason for the dip and suggested we call HPD. The police department said it was a municipal courts matter.

Two court staffers told us that Lewis had been more forthcoming with them -- he had blamed the dip on the fact that police were working overtime responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

There's no question the city's revenue figures took a dip. What's less certain is whether the cops have stepped up their traffic-enforcement operations as a result. At a time when the department's getting heat for a manpower shortage and lengthy response times to citizen calls, you'd hate to think they'd be devoting a lot of effort to finding niggling things to ticket (especially if you're someone who got a ticket).

You'd hate to think it, but it really wouldn't come as a surprise. MayorWhiteChiefHurtt are serious about their revenue streams!

ANNE ADDS: Has HPD's "productivity policy" been rolled out city-wide? Maybe MayorWhiteChiefHurtt need to reissue the memo on the (don't say quota) policy, as a refresher for HPD officers.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD trying to boost traffic-citation revenue stream?"> 12/15/05 07:44 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

29 June 2005

Chron editorialists discover Brown Administration "rotten dealings"

The Chronicle editorial board weighs in with a shocker today: things were really bad during Lee Brown's administration!

Of course, the Chronicle editorialists did not feel that way during the Brown experience, instead preferring to make excuses for the bumbling mayor as they endorsed him over and over.

Note to editorialists: Your support of the man for six years didn't exactly hold his administration to account, but that's over and done with. You can make amends by focusing attention on the city's current problems, such as: the unfunded municipal employees pension fund liability that Brown bequeathed to Mayor White and that still has not been solved, the HPD manpower shortage that Mayor White and his council haven't done enough to correct, the bait-and-switch tactics of METRO with regard to the METRO Solutions plan, and the growing MS-13 gang problem (for starters).

Readers should feel free to add their own suggestions for the editorial board in the comments.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/05 09:32 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (2)

02 April 2006

Chronicle reports on Houston's world-class murder rate

From the Chronicle:

The number of homicides in Houston rose nearly 25 percent during the first three months of 2006, compared with the same period last year, despite a multimillion-dollar police effort in the city's most crime-ridden areas.

The Houston Police Department investigated 90 homicides through Friday, compared with 73 in the first quarter of 2005, police say. That puts the city on track for the deadliest year in more than a decade and would erase the last of the gains made in the 1990s, when the city's homicide tally was cut in half.

[snip]

But a Houston Chronicle analysis of 326 homicides that occurred in the city last year shows that those trends were obvious long before the first evacuee-related slaying and the year-end spike that prompted Police Chief Harold Hurtt to direct resources and public attention to these problem areas.

Hurtt last week admitted that HPD was slow to identify the patterns. But he blamed a staffing shortage that grew worse over the last year and outmoded tools for crime analysis.

"We were behind the curve as far as resources," he said. "We need to do a better job of continuously identifying and even forecasting trends. But you need (technology) and you need personnel to be able to respond."

And Mayor White said Harold Hurtt was "the most successful major-city chief in the country"??? If Chief Hurtt was THE most successful major-city chief Houston could choose, then Houston has some big problems.

Chris Baker and blogHOUSTON have been calling this quite awhile now. Local media have been reporting sporadically on the police manpower shortage, but there have been enough stories that if MayorWhiteChiefHurtt were paying attention, Chief Hurtt wouldn't be blaming outdated forecasting tools for his inaction (wink, wink).

City officials' constant focus on world-class this and world-class that hasn't helped. And red-light and surveillance cameras aren't the answer either, unless the city wants to play defense. Actual police officers ARE a deterrent, and when the city gets serious about a world-class safety strategy, then all the pretty, fluffy stuff (downtown park, for example) might be worth discussing.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/02/06 09:44 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (13)

22 June 2006

Council boosts HPD cadet classes (finally)

The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports on yesterday's budget session at Council, where HPD and crime were big topics:

About a quarter of the amendments addressed the budgets for police, fire and ambulance services.

One that passed was a proposal by Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck to allocate money to train more police officers.

That change would add one police cadet class to the six already in White's plan for next year. The additional class could add as many as 70 officers, part of an effort to rebuild an understaffed force struggling with a recent increase in homicides and other violent crimes.

Seven cadet classes is a good start, but it's not enough given the extent to which the Mayor and his Council have ignored the problem for years. More on that in a moment. But first, let's finish with the Stiles story, and the antics of certain members of Council:

Councilwoman Ada Edwards said she had to "hold her nose" to vote for the additional officers because she doesn't think the city scrutinizes the department's spending thoroughly.

She raised concern about reports in the Houston Chronicle on a police officer who was paid $100,000 in overtime last year, and that dozens of rank-and-file officers earned six-figure incomes. She has demanded a review of staffing.

"This is our most expensive department, and it has no accountability," she said.

Did Councilmember Edwards vote for a police state? Wow. It would probably be tough for her to compromise on principles that way if she could actually remember what she complained about from week to week.

Councilwoman Sue Lovell said the department hasn't done enough to study and explain crime trends — or involve policy makers and their constituents on possible solutions. "My frustration is, I want to be part of the problem solving. Just putting more officers on the street, just for the sake of putting officers in the street, is not going to reduce crime," she said.

Perhaps Councilmember Lovell is the new "police state" critic on Council. It's just astounding that some councilmembers still refuse to acknowledge HPD's manpower shortage. It's even worse with Lovell, since Jay Aiyer schooled her on the topic during their campaign!

Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, contends that the cadet classes won't solve HPD's manpower woes quickly enough:

With 200-250 officers expected to retire every year, Marticiuc said a drastic recruiting effort is needed — much more than the six academy classes now being planned.

"If we put 350 officers through academy classes, we have a net gain of 100," he said. "It's going to take us 10-15 years to ever catch up to where we need to be."

So much for the police state.

Marticiuc had more to say about the leadership of MayorWhiteChiefHurtt in this story.

BLOGVERSATION: Houblog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD cadet classes (finally)"> 06/22/06 09:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

21 January 2007

HPD officers accused of bad behavior

News of alleged wrongdoing by HPD officers has dominated the local news this weekend.

The Chronicle reports that HPD's internal affairs division has busted an officer for taking bribes:

A veteran Houston police officer arrested Friday in an undercover bribery sting is among the highest paid and most-disciplined employees on the force, city records show.

The officer, Alfred Alaniz, is charged with felony bribery after police allege he took cash during a traffic stop from an undercover officer posing as a civilian motorist.

A complaint about Alaniz, a 20-year veteran accident investigator, prompted the Houston Police Department's internal affairs division to conduct the roadside sting.

"The department had received information that he was accepting money in exchange for not writing citations," said Assistant Chief Michael Dirden, who heads internal affairs.

KRIV-26's Isiah Carey reports that HPD's internal affairs division is also investigating the arrest of a local political activist on a gun charge, even though the woman has a concealed carry permit. Carey reports that the woman says she was tipped off by an HPD sergeant that the arrest was retaliation for a complaint she registered with the department's internal affairs division. The video report is available here. Carey promises to stay on top of HPD's internal affairs investigation.

We're always hesitant to blame cops first, as some people do, in part because they're doing a hard job in tough circumstances right now (thanks to the manpower shortage and surge in bad guys). But if there are cops behaving badly, here's hoping that the internal affairs division gets it sorted out -- quickly.

BLOGVERSATION: Isiah Carey's Insite.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD officers accused of bad behavior"> 01/21/07 12:50 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (18)

26 June 2006

New HPD cadet class underway

KTRK-13 reports that a new HPD cadet class got started today:

The city of Houston enlisted 40 new police cadets Monday morning.

At a time the city finds itself in great need, it will take six months to make the cadets officers. The class is smaller than expected. The city had 70 slots open, but is having a tough time finding applicants.

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said, "We're trying to get 70 and it's been very difficult because there's a lot of competition out there. A lot of major departments as well as smaller departments are all out recruiting because they need to add more people."

A full cadet class costs the city more than $3 million. Next year Houston will have five cadet classes. The costs add up quickly. Upon graduation, with salary and benefits, each officer costs the city $65,000 a year.

It's disappointing that the class was only slightly over half full, now that the city finally is addressing the problem.

Councilmember Adrian Garcia lets loose with a whopper at the end:

"We have continuously found ways to prioritize our investment in public safety. Our public is asking for it," said Houston Councilman Adrian Garcia. "The issue becomes, you know, that we got to figure out how to afford it."

Continuously? Now Councilmember, that's not quite true. It's good that HPD's manpower shortage is finally commanding some attention, but that's only come about recently. And judging from this disappointing recruiting effort, it's going to need more attention.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD cadet class underway"> 06/26/06 10:03 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (3)

30 October 2007

Marticiuc out, Blankinship in at HPOU

Hans Marticiuc is out and Gary Blankinship is the new president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, according to results posted on the organization's website.

KHOU-11's Jeff McShan has more on the new HPOU president:

Blankinship said while the critical manpower shortage is his No. 1 concern, improving the officers’ ability to call for help is on his agenda too.

HPD doesn’t have enough working radios, and there hasn’t been a priority to buy more because it’s being forced to switch to a digital system by 2012 -- a system that could costs more than $100 million.

“We’re trying to get officers all assigned a radio,” Blankinship said. “This situation that happened over the weekend: That possibly might not have happened if the officer had a handheld radio with him.”

Officer Hill was shot while working off-duty, an extra job, at the apartment complex where he lives.

Blankinship said working or not, all officers should have a handheld radio available.

“And we would like to move forward for all officers being assigned because they are subject to being called to duty at anytime even off duty,” he said.

Perhaps Blankinship’s toughest task will be the new HPD contract with the city, which runs out in 2010. The contract will determine officer salaries and benefits.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/30/07 09:45 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (1)

08 November 2007

KPRC: HPD response times continue to worsen

KPRC-2's Robert Arnold checks in with some hard numbers on HPD response times that continue to worsen (thanks to the manpower crunch that was neglected for too long by City Hall):

For the Houston police officers patrolling our streets, the most urgent calls for help are classified as "priority one." That means someone's life is in immediate danger, and that's why officers are supposed to respond to these "priority one" calls in five minutes or less.

"That is an important performance indicator for us. We try to keep an eye as closely on that as we can," Executive Assistant Chief Tim Oettmeier said.

But when Local 2 Investigates analyzed three years worth of police response times, breaking down Houston neighborhood by neighborhood, we discovered more and more parts of the city are waiting longer than five minutes for police to respond to these life-threatening, "priority one" calls.

"What I hear from officers is we are short and could we get some help out here," outgoing Houston Police Officers’ Union president Hans Marticiuc said.

In 2004, police were taking longer than 5 minutes to respond to a third of Houston's neighborhoods. Two years later it was 43%. Through the first quarter of this year it was half the city.

"Any given shift you probably don't have more than 200 to 250 officers out on the street," Marticiuc said.

"For the entire city?" Arnold asked.

"Uh, huh," Marticiuc said.

Large outlying areas are especially challenging. Neighborhoods on the backside of Lake Houston, around Bush Intercontinental Airport, off I-10 past the Beltway, off Highway 288 are all waiting anywhere from 6 to 9 minutes for officers to respond to life-threatening calls.

"Sixty seconds, 120 seconds, 180 seconds make all the difference in the world,” Marticiuc said.

But it's not just the suburbs. Some neighborhoods inside the Loop and near downtown are also seeing more than 6 minute wait times.

"I'd like to say it's alarming, but it's almost to be expected with the shortage of personnel that we have," Marticiuc said.

Here's the dilemma. The bulk of officers is deployed to neighborhoods with the highest crime rates. That leaves neighborhoods with traditionally lower crime rates thin, and that means it takes officers longer to get to those areas when you call for help. Factor in traffic and the number of calls for help officers are handling at the time, the wait gets even longer.

"It's really an allocation issue and it's a very tough challenge," Oettmeier said.

Mayor White has pledged action (finally) on bolstering HPD's manpower, and we hope after his big election victory that he will be focused on this problem.

RELATED COVERAGE: Local 2 Investigates Unanswered Call For Help (Robert Arnold, KPRC-2 News).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD response times continue to worsen"> 11/08/07 05:35 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

27 March 2005

Chief Hurtt: New Chron "good guy"

Today, the Chronicle runs a puff piece by Joe Stinebaker on police chief Harold Hurtt, a local "exorcist with a badge" (but until recently, no uniform).

The article celebrates council's decision to spend $5 million on tasers on the chief's recommendation (the graphical blurb says $4 million has been spent) and to install revenue-generating red-light cameras.

While the crime lab is mentioned in the article, no mention is made of the harsh criticism the chief has received for moving so slowly on the crime lab. Nor is there any mention of the criticism the chief has received for implementing a "productivity policy" that looks suspiciously like a ticket quota system. And the article does not mention one of the biggest problems facing HPD -- a worsening manpower shortage -- or give any indication of how the chief bureaucrat plans to deal with it.

As a puff piece, it fails in one major regard. We expected a big celebration of the chief finally being able to don the HPD uniform, roughly a year after taking the job! But no such celebration is offered by Stinebaker. We'll celebrate it again for him -- and call attention to his new grooming standards as well! These are exciting times at HPD.

Interestingly, the article refers to tasers as tools by which local law enforcement can overcome the chief's perception that HPD has an "excessive force" problem. That's an interesting concern in light of KTRK-13's current story of an off-duty officer (not identified as HPD, but not identified otherwise) using a taser to subdue two women in a dispute at a local bar. One supposes that's preferable to shooting the lady dead, but it seems that Hurtt's "excessive force" concerns might still need a little work.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/27/05 11:40 AM | Houston People | Technorati | Comments (3)

24 July 2008

Issues With Houston Police Department's Marshal's Office

Isiah Carey's Insite has two posts concerning the beef between HPD Assistant Chief Vicki King and city Marshal's office.

June 17 Post
HPD isn't saying they are going to lay off the officers in the Marshal's office. They say they are going to have them reassigned. Now, many veteran officers who land a good day shift with weekends and holidays off become creatures of habit. They are very resistant to change, especially if it means losing such a sweet work schedule. Their argument (to justify their existence) is about clearing the over 1 million HPD warrants that are active.

July 23 Post
In this post, someone sent Mr. Carey an anonymous email claiming racism.

This is how "clearing warrants" works. An officer comes into contact with somebody on the streets (i.e. traffic stop, person stop, call for service, etc.). The officer checks the person (either by ID card, driver's license, or date of birth) through the local, state, and national databases looking for warrants. If the person is wanted, the warrant shows up. Now, the officer cannot arrest and haul the person to jail at that point. The officer must get confirmation of the warrant. This consists of contacting the law enforcement agency that wants the person arrested and brought to their jail. The officer (or their dispatcher) contacts the other agency and informs them they have a person who their computer says has a warrant. A representative of the warrant's originating agency goes to their file cabinet looking for the actual paper warrant. If the warrant is there, then the representative tells the officer/dispatcher that their warrant is active and they want the person in their jail. The officer is informed the warrant is "confirmed" and then the person is placed under arrest and taken to jail.

Now, in the first post, Mr. Carey asks Chief King about the 35,000 warrants cleared. However, I can promise you that the HPD Marshal's office did not locate all of these people on their own. The majority of these fugitives were arrested on other charges, or stopped on the street and checked by street officers. Someone at the Marshal's office answers the phone, gets the person's information, and goes looking for the paper copy of the warrant. I can tell you that in 2007, someone answered the phone 35,000 times and looked for 35,000 paper copies of warrants.

Now, with HPD under the gun for their manpower shortage, and for their massive overtime spending, what sense does it make for about 70 police officers to be paid to do a job that a handful of civilian clerks can do? Do people want more officers on the street? Do people want more detectives handling their cases? This seems to me, more of a case of HPD wanting to shift resources and complacent officers resisting the change to keep their nice work schedule. I can certainly understand a veteran officer not wanting to start over with a lousy shift and lousy days off. However, it's ultimately about how to best utilize police officers to serve the citizens.

Posted by Jason @ 07/24/08 01:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

18 February 2008

Council to consider signing bonuses to boost HPD recruiting

We've frequently commented on HPD's manpower shortage, which has been a problem for years.

The Chronicle reports that Mayor White and Council are finally attempting to boost recruiting via financial incentives:

In an effort to put at least 1,000 more officers on the streets, the Houston Police Department plans to offer signing bonuses of up to $12,000 to new cadets starting with the next academy class in March, officials said Thursday.

The decision to offer bonuses follows similar moves by other police departments and the military, all of which are competing for the same pool of applicants.

The city of Dallas, for example, has offered a $10,000 incentive to police cadets — even advertising the deal on Houston billboards.

And with a starting salary of $41,690, Dallas is reeling in recruits from Houston, where the base pay is just $29,000.

"The field has never been as competitive as it is right now, and you've got to do something," said Capt. Dwayne W. Ready, who heads up HPD's human resources division.

The proposal, supported by Mayor Bill White, is expected to go before the City Council on Wednesday.

Officials with the Houston Police Officers' Union, however, have criticized the bonus plan, characterizing it as a Band-Aid solution to a more serious problem of HPD's uncompetitive pay scale and warned it could hurt morale.

The department employs about 4,800 officers, and Police Chief Harold Hurtt wants at least 6,100 to keep pace with the city's population growth, said Executive Assistant Chief Martha Montalvo, who oversees HPD's administrative operations.

Given the disparities in salary between Houston and Dallas (and similar signing bonuses in Dallas), city leaders may actually need to consider a boost in salaries along with the signing bonus.

Surely if the City of Houston can throw money at so many of the mayor's pet projects in a time of record revenues, it can actually fund essential city services (like policing) at the necessary levels.

RELATED COVERAGE: KTRK-13.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD recruiting"> 02/18/08 10:13 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

12 April 2005

Another manifestation of HPD's manpower shortage

If you think you've seen more graffiti around Houston lately, you're probably not imagining it.

The increased defacement of property citywide comes after HPD (under the direction of the dynamic duo of White/Hurtt, no doubt) ended the city's graffiti abatement program, according to a KHOU-11 report.

Now, the only graffiti abatement program in the fourth largest city in the country is available exclusively to East End residents and businesses, under the auspices of the Greater East End Management District:

The Greater East End Management District has the only mobile unit created to wipe out illegal aerosol art.

[snip]

"We're here to clean graffiti. We're the only graffiti abatement here in the City of Houston, right now," [Martin] Chavez explained. He said his team is the only weapon against the crime since HPD stopped its graffiti abatement program more than a year ago.

Every day, private citizens and property owners who have been tagged call Chavez' team for help. So do HPD and the city's neighborhood protection office.

"The unique thing about the program is we color match the colors of the buildings," Chavez said.

And it doesn't matter where in the East End the crime was committed. The modern day "Mr. Cleans" armed with paint brushes and power wash equipment are committed to wiping slates clean.

Chavez said his team is always up for the job. "It doesn't matter if it's 100 degrees or 50 degrees, we're out here."

The driving force -- Restoring surfaces back to the original style and bringing prestige back to one of Houston's oldest neighborhoods.

"As far as our area goes, which is the East End, graffiti has really gone down," said Chavez.

There were 700 sites abated when the program started five years ago, 526 in 2002, 528 in 2003 and 520 last year.

The crew is also spending less time on the streets. It used to take four days a week. Now they're down to two.

"We've seen graffiti spread out of the East End and more into Midtown and downtown and other areas of town," Chavez said.

Chavez said the mayor's anti-gang office and a city council member have approached his group wanting to copy the program.

HPD used to have such a program! And as we learned from Mayor Giuliani in New York, such programs are not as trivial as they might seem.

But, Mayor White and Chief Hurtt seem to have some very different priorities for the city.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD's manpower shortage"> 04/12/05 10:48 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (2)

29 April 2005

Neighborhood residents complain about MS-13, HPD reaction

KHOU-11's Vicente Arenas reports that residents of an unnamed Houston neighborhood are complaining that they can't get HPD's brass to take their concerns about suspected MS-13 gang graffiti seriously:

In a neighborhood that 11 News won't identify for security reasons, a number of people are saying their property and cars have been tagged by gang members who they believe may belong to MS-13.

Graffiti like this has some Houston residents concerned that MS-13 gang members are trying to send a message.

And the neighborhood wants action from police.

"I do have a real concern," says one resident who asked not be named.

The number 13, they say, seems to be popping up everywhere -- fences, signs, you name it. That is why they are asking for help.

"I came out on Sunday morning and saw that someone had marked up my truck. It's happened two times in less than a month."

Six cars have been tagged since last week.

The markings were similar. All the vehicles this man says belonged to Anglos whom he believes are being targeted through vandalism and messages.

"I do have a real concern. It's always been a real peaceful neighborhood until just the last year, I guess."

Growing graffiti here was the first surprise. The second came when he called police for help.

"And I called the police to have them come and investigate and got no response whatsoever," he says.

"An officer was at the scene in a handful of incidents as I stated and reports were filed with very specific information," says HPD's Lt. Robert Manzo.

The resident 11 News talked to says police showed up only after he contacted a council member and 11 News.

"We have contacted the captain who's responsible for this specific area and he's telling us he will be assigning some resources," says Lt. Manzo.

Police aren't sure how bad the gang problem is here. Graffiti can be cryptic or copycats trying to have fun.

From recent local reporting, we know that MS-13 is active in the Houston area. Yet one wouldn't know that from any public statements or activities from HPD's brass. Of course, HPD's current manpower shortage doesn't help, yet that doesn't seem to be a priority for Chief Hurtt, Mayor White, or council either.

In what can only be described as a rarity, we find ourselves in complete agreement with this Chronicle editorial:

HPD's silence might have some logic when it comes to small, attention-hungry neighborhood gangs. But gangs such as MS 13, the Crips or the Latin Kings are organized crime operations not in it for the publicity. Identifying their habits — the colors they wear, the graffiti they pen, the way they shave their eyebrows and tattoo their foreheads — can't make these vicious gangs more dangerous. However, it will help Houston residents to protect themselves and give law enforcement agencies essential gang-busting intelligence.

To that end, we've reposted the suspect graffiti that appeared in the KHOU story.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD reaction"> 04/29/05 04:10 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (5)

26 January 2007

KHOU: Mayor slashes HPD manpower initiatives

Since the big "state of the city" address, the mayor's PR machine has been in full spin mode on the absolutely fabulous job the administration has done on crime.

The Chronicle's reporting after the big blitz from the administration emphasized that one measurement of crime (overall crime per 100,000 residents) saw a 5.7% drop year on year, even though murders per 100,000 residents saw a 5% increase year on year. The reporting did not make clear that those figures rely heavily on city estimates of population increases, nor did the reporting equally emphasize raw crime statistics.

Those raw crime statistics were available in an accompanying graphics box, and it's easy to see why the administration preferred not emphasize them. Of the seven categories measured, four saw increases, two saw declines, and one remained roughly the same from year to year. That's useful information. It's also useful to compare the crime statistics with earlier years (pdf link) -- for example, murders have surged above 300+ per year in the last two years of the White Administration, after remaining below that for several years.

But the Administration really doesn't want people looking at those numbers too closely. Indeed, as Jeff McShan reports for KHOU-11, Mayor White is really tired of this tedious crime stuff and wants to move on to other spending priorities:

There are big changes in the Houston Police Department as all overtime for Houston police officers is being cut and classes to train new police new officers are also being scaled back.

There is a fear among many inside the department that crime stats will soon rise again, thanks to a big financial cutback quietly handed down by Mayor Bill White.

[snip]

High ranking sources inside HPD told 11 News that overtime programs that have blanketed crime ridden areas for months deterring a lot of crime are now gone.

Police Chief Harold Hurtt reportedly asked the mayor for $15 million to pay for continued overtime patrols through June but that request was refused.

We learned he relayed the bad news to his command staff at a retreat in Galveston Wednesday.

Since a close look at the statistics shows crime is still increasing across several categories and is still well above pre-Katrina figures, it is not good news at all for Houstonians that Mayor White has decided once again to de-prioritize HPD's significant manpower shortage.

RELATED COVERAGE: Chief Hurtt says Houston's crime rate is down, others aren't so sure (Gene Apodaca, KTRK-13).

UPDATE (01-26-2007): A reader passes along a memo from Mayor White that disputes assertions in the KHOU story referenced above. I've asked the Mayor's press shop to be added to their press distribution lists countless times, without the courtesy of a response one way or the other. Obviously, there's no way for the little blog to post such information if we never receive it, but at least we can note that mayor disputes the story. We'll post any followup as well.

UPDATE (01-28-2007): Followup posted here.

BLOGVERSATION: Red Ink: Texas, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ HPD manpower initiatives"> 01/26/07 12:00 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

22 December 2005

Murder rate in Houston skyrockets

KPRC-2 reports that the murder rate in Houston has recently skyrocketed:

The last couple of months have not helped Houston's increased number of homicides, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Houston Police Department Chief Harold Hurtt said he is disturbed by the rising trend in the city's homicide rate and is working with city officials to create a plan that will decrease the number of violent crimes.

Police have investigated 324 murders so far this year -- a 24 percent increase over the 263 homicides reported during the same time span in 2004. The percentage increase in the number of homicides that occurred during November and December are more alarming.

"In November and December of this year we had 51. Last year we had 30, and that's an increase of 70 percent over those last two months," Hurtt said.

KTRH-740 reports that two more murders today have only made the statistics worse.

With increased gang activity, not to mention the influx of Katrina refugees, it's a terrible time for HPD (and citizens) to be faced with a police manpower shortage because of politicians who have been slow to recognize and deal with the problem.

RELATED COVERAGE: Houston Chronicle.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/05 10:56 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

17 January 2006

Chief Hurtt isn't rolling out the welcome mat for the Guardian Angels

The Guardian Angels have arrived and a KTRH-740 news break mentioned that Chief Hurtt is none too happy about it. This KHOU-11 story echoes that:

The Guardian Angels’ No. 2 man is in town from New York.

“We’re looking to be in Houston, in perpetuity, because the people of Houston want us here,” Arnaldo Salinas said.

But judging from his previous comments, Houston’s police chief will not welcome the red berets with open arms.

“I need to work with the police; it works better when we work together,” Salinas said. “But can I work alone? Absolutely, and I would.”

The Guardian Angels have a history in Houston. They patrolled the Montrose area in the 1980s, but this time they are starting from scratch.

For too long MayorWhiteChiefHurtt ignored talk of a police manpower shortage -- they have been focused on everything BUT public safety. You might say we have a world-class crime problem! Therefore, Chief Hurtt isn't in much of a position to complain about a private group coming in to help out, even if the group is just providing an unarmed presence in crime-prone areas. If Houston's top two public servants, who are charged with keeping the public safe, won't do their jobs, are citizens supposed just to sit there like bullseyes? I don't think so.

LOCAL TALK: Chris Baker is discussing HPD issues this afternoon, including the issue of the officer who was fired, then reinstated.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 01/17/06 04:16 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (4)

03 June 2005

METRO announces new downtown jaywalking revenue stream

KHOU-11's Doug Miller reports that as of June 13, extra METRO police manpower will be deployed downtown to ticket jaywalkers:

Downtown jaywalkers should be on the lookout in the month of June, because Metro police are planning a concerted effort to warn and ticket violators of pedestrian, bicycle and motor vehicle laws in the downtown area.

The object is to ensure that the public complies with the transportation laws to assure their safety and the safety of others who share the downtown roadways and sidewalks.

Officers with the Metro Police Department have produced brochures that will be given to pedestrians as they walk in the downtown area and are working jointly with HPD on this initiative.

"The focus is on public safety and we at Metro want to ensure we do everything we can to inform the public about how to do just that," says Captain Milton O'Gilvie of the Metro Police Department.

Many people who now live, work, and visit downtown are crossing in mid-block or against the traffic signal to get across streets; bicyclists are riding on the sidewalks or against traffic; and motorists are speeding and running red lights.

The emphasis placed on the downtown mobility initiative will begin on June 13 and continue until June 30.

KTRH-740 news has reported that the METRO police department all but concedes there isn't a problem downtown at the moment, but lots of people! (Translation: $uckers who can give the city $$$$)

Leaving aside the question of why this is a METRO police department issue at all -- although it IS a very good question -- one can almost see Mayor White and the METRO folks smiling at the thought of a new downtown jaywalking revenue stream that can help finance the light rail's unyielding appetite for dollars. Oh, I guess I just answered my very good question.

Let's not forget that this is the same METRO police department that cannot prevent crime at its Park-and-Ride lots because it refuses to deploy manpower to do so. Yet it has the extra manpower and resources to deploy downtown to issue citations to citizens just trying to enjoy the huge investment taxpayers have made in their downtown in recent years? And to print brochures instructing citizens how to cross the street?!

Unbelievable. Absurd. Feel free to add your own adjectives in the comments.

Thanks again, Mayor White and METRO officials, for subjugating the real public safety needs in our city to your need to boost revenues. One can certainly understand why these obnoxious programs are announced on Fridays.

UPDATE: KUHF-88.7's Jack Williams reports on the new Downtown Jaywalking Revenue Stream program:

Downtown jaywalkers beware... The Houston Police Department and Metro will begin a crackdown on pedestrian law violators starting later this month. Officials say the three-week operation is about safety, not revenue.

More than a dozen officers assigned to HPD's Special Operations Division will begin monitoring busy downtown intersections starting June 13th, looking for not only pedestrian violations, but also bicycle and motor vehicle violations. Police captain Mary Lentschke says pedestrians can affect downtown traffic flow.

In a recent survey, police observed more than 7,000 downtown walkers and found about 25 percent of them were breaking various pedestrian ordinances. Most of the violations occured during afternoon rush hour.

Police says they'll hand out tickets if they have to, with fines of up to $200, but increased revenue isn't the goal.

One law of politics is that when public officials say it's not about the money, it's almost always about the money.

UPDATE 2: KTRK-13's coverage of the "public safety initiative" reads like a police press release -- or worse, like police spinning after Doug Miller's story for KHOU. If that's what appeared on the air, KTRK's viewers missed about half the story.

UPDATE (06-04-2005): The Chronicle runs a lengthy story on the city's new Downtown Jaywalking Revenue Stream Program. Unsurprisingly, this latest bit of genius comes from none other than Chief Hurtt:

The idea for the initiative began with Chief Harold Hurtt, said HPD spokesman Alvin Wright.

"The chief noticed a lot of folks jaywalking downtown," and asked for a study of the problem, Wright said.

Now that Chief Hurtt would seem to have that pressing problem of renegade downtown pedestrians under control, if he and Mayor White could turn their attention to REAL problems like HPD's manpower shortage, the growing menace of MS-13 gang activities, graffiti, and 911 response times, that would be much appreciated.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/03/05 04:44 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (7)

08 October 2004

Dallas recruits Houston for police officers

KHOU-11's Jason Whitely reports that the Dallas Police Department is aggressively recruiting Houston for new officers:

Houston and surrounding counties could be losing more police officers and potential new recruits because of an aggressive effort to lure our law enforcement officers to Dallas.

It was a billboard that first caught our attention. Dallas Police recruiting in Houston? It's true.

"We want to have a real diverse police department. I've gone to New York a couple times. I've gone to Phoenix, El Paso, McAllen," said Detective Buu Nguyen, Dallas Police Department.

Two Dallas detectives are in town all week, going to job fairs, schools, even at the Houston Community College looking for new recruits.

"We see a lot of interested people here. They're walking around. They treat us very well here. They've accommodated us very well here. All we're trying to let them know is that we're hiring," said Detective Eddie Lopez, Dallas Police Department.

They plan on hiring 220 new officers over the next year.

Out of town recruiting is nothing new for large departments, but Houston Police said it recently had to cut all of these out of its budget to save money. Dallas has done the opposite; spending more in the last few weeks than it has in the last few years.

Dallas City Council is spending $22,500 buying billboards across the state, 10 of which are in Houston.

One attraction Dallas offers is pay. First year salary there is $38,640, compared to Houston's $27,097.

Dallas recruiters said they've already found 40 or so Houstonians interested.

But their visit here comes at a time when the Houston Police Department is facing a personnel crisis itself.

A large number of officers here are retiring over what they consider a poor pension plan, among other things.

It's unclear whether any will take Dallas up on its offer or whether Houston will have a harder time finding new cadets.

Emphasis has been supplied to make the point that Whitely doesn't: HPD is facing a looming manpower shortage, because City Council under Mayor White's leadership has not funded cadet classes sufficient to replace personnel lost to retirement and attrition.

KHOU-11 recently reported that manpower is being shifted from city parks to more basic police services, indicating that personnel shortages are already affecting everyday life in Houston. Meanwhile, the Mayor and Council have apparently placed a higher priority on smoking bans and a $2 million African-American museum giveaway, judging from time spent on those issues.

At least Dallas should find Houston fertile recruiting ground for their police department, since there's not really local competion at the moment! That should give our friends at Y'allBlog one more thing to like about Houston.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/08/04 12:55 PM | Houston Life | Technorati | Comments (0)

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