The Chronicle‘s Matt Stiles reports on yesterday’s budget session at Council, where HPD and crime were big topics:
About a quarter of the amendments addressed the budgets for police, fire and ambulance services.
One that passed was a proposal by Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck to allocate money to train more police officers.
That change would add one police cadet class to the six already in White’s plan for next year. The additional class could add as many as 70 officers, part of an effort to rebuild an understaffed force struggling with a recent increase in homicides and other violent crimes.
Seven cadet classes is a good start, but it’s not enough given the extent to which the Mayor and his Council have ignored the problem for years. More on that in a moment. But first, let’s finish with the Stiles story, and the antics of certain members of Council:
Councilwoman Ada Edwards said she had to “hold her nose” to vote for the additional officers because she doesn’t think the city scrutinizes the department’s spending thoroughly.
She raised concern about reports in the Houston Chronicle on a police officer who was paid $100,000 in overtime last year, and that dozens of rank-and-file officers earned six-figure incomes. She has demanded a review of staffing.
“This is our most expensive department, and it has no accountability,” she said.
Did Councilmember Edwards vote for a police state? Wow. It would probably be tough for her to compromise on principles that way if she could actually remember what she complained about from week to week.
Councilwoman Sue Lovell said the department hasn’t done enough to study and explain crime trends — or involve policy makers and their constituents on possible solutions. “My frustration is, I want to be part of the problem solving. Just putting more officers on the street, just for the sake of putting officers in the street, is not going to reduce crime,” she said.
Perhaps Councilmember Lovell is the new “police state” critic on Council. It’s just astounding that some councilmembers still refuse to acknowledge HPD’s manpower shortage. It’s even worse with Lovell, since Jay Aiyer schooled her on the topic during their campaign!
Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, contends that the cadet classes won’t solve HPD’s manpower woes quickly enough:
With 200-250 officers expected to retire every year, Marticiuc said a drastic recruiting effort is needed — much more than the six academy classes now being planned.
“If we put 350 officers through academy classes, we have a net gain of 100,” he said. “It’s going to take us 10-15 years to ever catch up to where we need to be.”
So much for the police state.
Marticiuc had more to say about the leadership of MayorWhiteChiefHurtt in this story.
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