Task force: Burden on victims to reduce convenience store crime
Mayor White's task force on convenience-store crime issued recommendations this week for addressing the issue. Unsurprisingly, recommendations put the burden of reducing convenience store crime mostly on the victims of the crime.
Here's is an excerpt from the Chronicle's reporting:
Mayor Bill White's Task Force on Convenience Store Security has recommended that shop owners take steps to deter crime at their businesses such as improving video surveillance and clearing clutter from windows.
The 38-member task force, comprised of city officials, the Houston Police Department and convenience store owners, announced the recommendations at a City Hall press conference today. The group had met for eight months.
[snip]
The task force is recommending that the city establish ordinances that require minimum standards for the number of video surveillance cameras and the type of lighting to be used. Other recommendations call for clearing clutter from windows to make crime more visible and minimizing the amount of cash on hand at all times.
And KPRC-2:
The group spent eight months researching and evaluating ways to increase safety. They recommended that the Houston Police Department establish a convenience store robbery unit to increase police presence and monitor crime.
Storeowners were also recommended to take a few steps to protect themselves.
"I am requesting, and directing, city employees to work with members of council and stakeholders in drafting ordinances which cover the cash drop boxes, surveillance cameras, silent alarm systems and store lighting," White said.
"Those little things should communicate that it is not convenient to rob stores, and it should be inconvenient for anyone thinking to do so," Councilman Adrian Garcia said.
Of course HPD needs to increase its police presence. But with HPD's manpower problems -- a problem left to the current administration by Lee Brown, but one exacerbated by the White administration's early indifference to the issue -- reallocating existing police resources to convenience store crime means depriving other crime units of needed resources, which will have an impact on their effectiveness.
So, Mayor White's solution is to push the problem off on the victims of convenience store crime, with the political cover of a task-force recommendation.
And to correct KPRC-2 -- the task force isn't talking about "recommendations" for the victims of crime (convenience store owners), but rather it is talking about the city enacting ordinances to force certain behavior from those victims of crime.
As Chau Nguyen and Jeff McShan report for KHOU-11, one convenience store owner sees the gambit for exactly what it is:
But in a business where storeowners like Carol Chang claim to make money by nickels and dimes, she thinks forcing a store to install security will cost them their business.
“A lot people think convenience stores make a lot of money, but the truth is when you start a business then you find out what happened,” said Chang.
We're told requirements will vary depending on the store's location. The higher the crime in the area, the more security measures they'll need.
“We'll have a timeline where they would have to have those in place in the future,” said Houston Assistant Police Chief John Trevino.
Ms. Chang is right, but Mayor White and his compliant Council want to be seen as doing something about convenience-store crime. With HPD's manpower shortage and ineffective leadership at the very top, their version of "doing something" is to push more of the burden onto the victims of crime. It's just another variant of Chief Hurtt's earlier advice on crime.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/01/07 04:49 PM | Print | Comments (2)
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