HPOU publication endorses CompStat; Hurtt repeats 2005 rhetoric
Back in May, Alan Helfman, Jay Wall, and William A Wolff penned a Chronicle op-ed making the case for CompStat, the statistical tool for fighting crime employed by William Bratton when he was police chief in New York (and now in LA).
In the June/July issue of Badge & Gun, the publication of the Houston Police Officers' Union, Helfman, et al., again make the case for CompStat in Houston (no online version is available yet). The Badge & Gun editorial page also endorses the concept:
In today's Houston, law-abiding citizens experience nothing but frustration when they want the latest crime statistics. As the trio of writers pointed out, they take almost six weeks to reach Hurtt's desk. In a communications age as sophisticated as ours, information becomes outdated and as stale as last week's bread loaf. How then can it be effectively used? We know the answer: It can't.
With CompStat, NYPD's website (check out www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/) shows crime precinct by precinct and allows crime complaint data to be examined on a week-to-date, prior 30 days and year-to-date basis, with comparison to previous years' activity. New York Blue is able to establish crime trends and commit to the ways and means needed to fight them.
Houston needs to refine and re-establish its methods for capturing crime statistics and build a system as unique and effective to Houston as CompStat is in the Big Apple.
Chief Hurtt, who previously pooh-poohed the CompStat notion, visited with the Chronicle editorial board recently. Here is his preferred approach to crime:
In a presentation to the Chronicle editorial board Monday, Hurtt outlined initiatives he believes will improve the department and help bring down crime rates in the city. One of them hinges on building a state of the art records management system to get and share data essential for good law enforcement decisions.
Violent crime continues to be a major problem, though it is declining from last year's high pace. According to Hurtt, burglaries of homes and motor vehicles are a major concern of the public, but one that citizens can combat through common sense preventive measures. He described one community meeting where residents complained about car break-ins. In a demonstration, officers checked the attendees' parked vehicles and found that 70 percent were either unlocked, had valuables visible or had other vulnerabilities that would attract and enable burglars.According to Hurtt, the best defense against such crimes is a mobilized community with members looking out for one another. "That seems to be missing somehow here," he said.
So, is Chief Hurtt now endorsing CompStat or not?
Because while the first quoted paragraph is promising, the last paragraph sounds a lot like Chief Hurtt circa 2005, when he effectively announced to Houstonians: "Good luck protecting yourselves!" (and crime continued to surge).
Our catty side can't help but wonder if his notion of a "mobilized community" is one that flees to Phoenix on the weekends (and if any Chron editorial board member was bold enough to ask).
RECENT: Burglary rates in Houston on the rise (Jeff McShan, KHOU-11 News), KTRK: Good news on crime (blogHOUSTON).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/07 11:59 PM | Print |
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