KHOU analyzes Park and Pillage crime surge; METROblog spins
Wednesday, KHOU-11's Jason Whitely followed up on an earlier story about the predictable surge in crime at METRO's Park and Pillage lots after the agency decided to remove live security personnel:
As we first told you last week Metro is trying to suppress a crime surge at its Park & Ride lots.
“It’s just tax money. Who cares?,” said Metro critic Tom Bazan.
But after our report, Bazan said Metro is overpaying for a system that won’t prevent anything.
“They were doing a better job of preventing crime when they were spending less. So it’s not a matter of how much money you throw at the problem it’s a matter of how effective you are,” Bazan said.
That may be true. Metro put guards in booths and only paid $1 million a year and crime was low.
But when money got tight, the transit agency got rid of the guards and crime surged more than 30 percent.
So Metro is now spending $16 million to install cameras and a public address system, gates that can be closed by remote control and emergency call stations.
But no guards.
“One security guard cannot see everything on a Park & Ride lot,” said Chief Tom Lambert, Metro Police Chief.
In his previous report, Whitely also described the surge in crime:
It's not just bus riders. Park & Rides passengers are targeted too.
For the last fiscal year, thefts went up 16-percent. The incease in robberies was even more alarming.
They skyrocketed by 400-percent compared to the fiscal year before.
Add it all up and crimes at bus stops, along the light rail and at Park & Rides were up 32-percent in the last year.
METRO's exciting (and expensive!) new blog was slow to post today (posts the previous two days have gone up in the 9:00 AM hour), so we suspected the PR flacks were hard at work spinning what any sane person had to regard as bad news (and perhaps even incompetence on the part of Chief Lambert). Sure enough, it took until 1:14 PM today for METRO's blogger to Sit and Spin the news (no doubt with help from colleagues):
The crime rate has crept up – but the city ‘s population has also surged as has its crime rate.
Is METRO’s new high-tech camera security system worth $16 million?
The cameras will be working 24/7, rotating 360 degrees to monitor loitering, crowded platforms, suspicious packages and non-bus vehicles that pull up in the bus lane. Hiring guards at $10/hour for 24/7 would cost $2.7 million a year.
That doesn’t include the cost of supervision, management structure or communications.
“As you continue to expand, you’d have to expand that,” said Lambert. “One guard on these lots could not clearly observe what this technology can observe.”
The security guards who sat in the guard shacks on METRO’s Park and Ride lots were never trained officers from METRO’s police department. They were contract security guards who were “trained to use the telephone – use their eyes and ears to call in a report,” said Capt. Tim Kelly of MPD.
The guards had no arrest authority and were unarmed.
“We’re not removing the human element,” Lambert explained later.
Actually, that's exactly what Chief Lambert and METRO are doing. Jason Whitely isn't stupid. The people who watched his accurate reporting aren't stupid. The people who read this blog (and others) and wonder about the METRO Police Chief's competence aren't stupid.
What is stupid is this statement from METRO's blogger:
The crime rate has crept up – but the city ‘s population has also surged as has its crime rate.
Well which is it? Has the crime rate crept up? Or has it surged? Because those are two very different characterizations. If the post took until 1:14 PM for a group of PR spinners to put together, you'd think the language would at least be consistent.
As we've noted previously, the population is estimated by the city's planning department to have increased, but we don't yet have census figures, so we need to be careful in how we discuss this estimated "surge." As we've also noted previously, some Chronicle reporters throwing about characterizations of crime in Houston need to be more careful. And as Matt Bramanti noted forcefully earlier, Mary Sit and the rest of the METRO spinners most certainly need to be more careful.
The fact is that METRO and Chief Lambert removed the security personnel. Crime surged, which was entirely predictable. METRO and Chief Lambert took forever to begin deploying cameras, which are not an effective replacement for "boots on the ground" (so to speak). And crime continues to be beyond acceptable levels at METRO's Park and Pillage lots.
A well-run business would concede that perhaps it made a mistake in eliminating the security presence at the Park and Pillage lots, and work hard to ensure the safety of its customers and their property. METRO and Chief Lambert, on the other hand, apparently think the problem will be solved by cameras and mischaracterizing the problem on METRO's Sit and Spin blog.
BACKGROUND: More problems at METRO's Park and Pillage lots, Park and Pillage lots get security cams and call boxes, KTRK Crime Tracker: Crime up at METRO's park-and-pillage lots, Park and Pillage safety takes a "quantum leap forward", METRO still looking at some technology for Park and Pillages, Chief Lambert: When a crime is reported, we'll rewind the tape, Metro's security track record does not inspire confidence, Beware tailgate thievery at Park and Pillages, Lambert: Park and Rides just need technology -- where do we get some, Metro's Park and Pillage, METRO pulls security from Park and Ride lots.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/11/07 11:13 PM | Print |
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