Timid mayoral candidates reject "drastic" approach to crime
Houston's three mayoral contenders -- and even the other guy in the race -- all agree that we need more police on the street and need "smarter" policing.
None of them really goes into much detail how they will pay for those police, beyond "efficiencies" (or what "smarter" really means beyond "technology").
And they are all pretty timid when it comes to addressing crime, as this excerpt from Bradley Olson's reporting for the Sunday Chronicle (Chron.com editing errors and all) illustrates:
The four candidates' public safety plans share many elements, including a push toward more neighborhood-oriented policing, better cooperation with police agencies in the region and the use of technology for daily crime-fighting.
The four candidates' public safety plans share many elements, including a push toward more neighborhood-oriented policing, better cooperation with police agencies in the region and the use of technology for daily crime-fighting.
Although several candidates noted that having more police has not always been shown to equal less crime, they all generally agree that the department needs more officers. Where they part ways is in how they plan to reach that goal.
All said they would avoid taking steps as drastic as Mayor Bob Lanier's after his 1991 election, when he used hundreds of millions of dollars from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County to pay for street construction, freeing up more money for police staffing.
Paul Magaziner has pointed out that METRO already owes millions to the city (and that the city doesn't seem inclined to collect), so we're not that surprised that none of these candidates is inclined to adopt former Mayor Bob's stance. The new precedent established by Mayor Bill White seems to be hands off METRO.
While it might be "drastic," we're not so sure pulling money from METRO to free the general fund for short-term, reactive policing would be all that effective anyway. We do think that HPD manpower levels are low and that we need to spend what it takes to boost those levels and sustain them, but we also think that HPD needs a better approach to crimefighting overall (CompStat).
In fact, here's our idea of "drastic" leadership when it comes to HPD. William Bratton just announced he's stepping down as police chief in Los Angeles. Is there a mayoral candidate bold enough to endorse bringing Bratton to Houston to implement CompStat (which is all about preventing crime by being smarter)?
That would be bold -- and distinguishing.
Photo of Houston's mayoral candidates by flickr user eschipul, used via a Creative Commons license.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/10/09 01:22 PM | Print |
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