Over at Cigars…Donuts…and Coffee, Jason says that MayorWhiteChiefHurtt have quite a predicament on their hands — appeasing different parts of the city, while dealing with limited police resources:
Earlier this year residents and business people from the southwest portion of Houston went to city council to air their complaints about the rising crime rate. For a while that part of town was in the news everyday. As a result, the news was filled with HPD’s fear reduction initiative, or the crime van, or mounted officers (in the daytime of course when the crooks are asleep) walking through apartment complexes. Many town hall meetings were held in which citizens asked questions (some venting their frustrations on the officers who had no idea what their specific situation was) and wanted to know what the police and city government were doing to solve the problem. The message basically was the police are stretched too thin as they are (which has earned the mayor and chief a lot of criticism).
[snip]
Now, the more affluent west side of Houston is airing the same complaint.
Yes, they are. We first noted the Westchase District hiring its own police force, made up of off-duty HPD officers, a couple of weeks ago. Today the Chronicle reports a couple of high-profile Houstonians are expressing concern about crime on that side of town:
Crime may not have been on the official agenda at this week’s Houston West Chamber of Commerce luncheon, but it seemed to be on everyone’s mind.
“This concerns all of us, especially when I’ve had my own businesses broken into,” said chamber president Jeannie M. Bollinger.
And when Bollinger asked Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale to discuss the issue, McIngvale recalled that the subject came up at an Astros game while he was talking to former President Bush and his wife. Barbara Bush, he said, asked: “What are they going to do about Westside?” Her hairdresser, McIngvale said, is afraid to go out at night.
“When the first lady says something about it, we got a problem,” McIngvale said.
(Tom Frechette, spokesman for the former president, said the Bushes were vacationing overseas, so “I can’t confirm nor deny” what Barbara Bush allegedly said.)
Whether or not one puts any importance on the opinion of McIngvale and Mrs. Bush, it surely adds to the heat the mayor and police chief are feeling:
To address crime, the chamber and other groups formed the West Houston Security Coalition, which has a Web site, www.westhouston coalition.com.
Bollinger said Mayor Bill White and HPD Chief Harold Hurtt will speak at a coalition meeting at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 30.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS (08-20-2006): KPRC-2 reports on the Westchase district’s hiring of a private police force, which provoked an earlier, bizarre, debate in our forum, the point of which was/is unclear to me. Here is an excerpt from the KPRC story:
The 25-person force consists of off-duty HPD officers, so they have full arrest powers.
Businesses in the area along Westheimer and Beltway 8 spent $300,000 a year for the extra patrols.
Westchase is trying to combat car thefts and break-ins in parking lots, among other crimes.
“You look for stolen cars, suspicious activity or something,” an officer said.
When the off-duty officers respond to calls, they can report the crimes to on-duty officers on HPD radios.
“By having extra officers here, we can relieve officers to protect the neighborhoods around us, so it really does help the communities around us,” said Jim Murphy, the Westchase Business District president.
The officers are also patrolling the parking lots in the area, looking for people who are crawling around between the parked cars trying to break into them.
They’re doing the routine patrols that HPD officers do not have as much time to do anymore because of a manpower shortage.
“There is a lot of crime on the west side of Harris County and the west side of Houston, so our customers feel pretty happy about seeing them riding around,” restaurant owner Rick Forester said.
One suspects the good people of Westchase do appreciate the police presence, although it’s a little embarrassing that they have to resort to private cops because the city is failing a public safety.
