New acronym unveiled to take on crime
KTRK-13's Christine Dobbyn reports that Chief Hurtt has unveiled a new acronym in his effort to get a handle on Houston's violent crime problem:
Chief Harold Hurtt announced a new initiative, the Neighborhood Enforcement Team Taskforce (NETT), to reduce crimes in specific areas of the city -- the Greenspoint area and the Southwest Freeway corridor. There is a long list of work they will focus on. They will work on identifying and registering 130 sex offenders from Louisiana to auto theft, prostitution, gangs and drugs, specifically in apartment complexes and motels where they have seen a high number of calls.
"We'll have officers working those areas by foot, on bicycle and of course, automobiles," said Chief Hurtt. "We are looking for high uniform presence not only to arrest people, but we are also interested in deterring crime and preventing it in the first place."
Chief Hurtt says officers will work overtime to focus on these areas. The extra hours are equal to about 150 officers.
KHOU-11 seems to be a little confused on that last:
Community activist Elaine Gaskamp says it's about time. "It takes manpower, that's the bottom line. We need more police."
A need that HPD's chief says he plans to fullfill by putting 150 more officers on the street through the NETT program.
More officers would be great, but for the most part we're talking about overtime authorization for existing manpower in targeted areas.
KHOU also posts a story tonight on a former HPD officer who left the force in 1998, enrolled in a recent academy, and is now claiming he was forced out of the academy because of his age. The allegation is under investigation by HPD internal affairs and the EEOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/06 11:01 PM | Print |
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