KTRK-13 breaks out its “exclusive Eyewitness News Crime Tracker” to take a look at the situation at METRO’s Park-and-Pillage lots:
METRO reports some 119 crimes occurred since the start of the year. The good news is that most of the crime we found was non-violent. The bad news is it’s happening more and more.
When Pamela Boone gets dropped off at the Spring Park and Ride, her husband never leaves until the bus does.
“I won’t leave her here by herself,” said Lucky Boone. “Not at all, not for no reason.”
Like many here, he’s heard the stories about crime and even witnessed a case himself.
“He had a brand new Escalade and four tires were gone,” he told us. “He was sitting up on blocks.”
An Escalade was robbed of its tires!
That certainly must be reassuring to Park-and-Pillage users.
METRO police chief Tom Lambert, who makes HPD’s increasingly beleaguered soft-on-crime chief (Harold Hurtt) look almost competent by comparison, had these words of wisdom:
“Any crime is unacceptable,” said METRO Police Chief Tom Lambert. “The fact of the matter is we have seen increases in crime on our Park and Rides.”
[snip]
Chief Lambert tells us METRO has used security guards in the past, but it was cost prohibitive.
The “fact of the matter is” (to quote Chief Lambert) that the rise in crime at the Park-and-Pillage lots was entirely predictable, and METRO’s decision to end the uniformed security presence at those lots was ill-advised.
