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 @ 11/29/05 03:42 PM | Print |
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