Various media outlets have reported on HPD’s recent success in reducing crime in the Denver Harbor area. Here’s an excerpt from the Chronicle‘s reporting on the topic:
Crime has dropped almost 30 percent overall in Denver Harbor after a two-month Houston police overtime program that sent seven additional patrol officers to the area, authorities said today.
The largest decline was a 50 percent reduction in home burglaries in that east Houston neighborhood during the first two months of 2008, compared with the same period last year, officials said.
Aggravated assaults and car burglaries also saw significant drops — 23 percent and 27 percent, respectively, police said.
The actual crime numbers accounting for the reductions were not immediately available.
[snip]
Gene Smith, the principal of Eliot Elementary School in Denver Harbor, said he has noticed a change since the program began.
“The police force is always around the campus,” Smith said. “Whenever I need them, they are just one call away.”
HPD officials said they will maintain an overtime police presence in Denver Harbor even after the conclusion of the program.
Let’s hope they can find the resources to do so.
In another story, KHOU-11’s Lee McGuire reports on another successful reduction in crime:
For six weeks, these bike patrol officers have come to know this neighborhood in ways cops in cars, can’t. In that time, property crime here has dropped by more than one-third.
“After several weeks of addressing it, it’s a totally different, it looks like a totally different community and the citizens are out walking their dogs and kids are out playing,” HPD Lt. Randy Wallace said. “It makes a tremendous difference on the overall quality of life.”
This is Operation Green Sweep: Houston Police on bikes and horses, not responding to crime — but hunting for it.
Crime statistics for one Montrose-area neighborhood indicate auto theft is down 16 percent; car break-ins are down 38 percent; and burglary is down 57 percent.
[snip]
Since green sweep started, police have warned or cited more than 350 people. Ten more were arrested for felonies, and 80 people they stopped had warrants out for their arrest.
The money for this, nearly half a million dollars, comes out of the police overtime budget. But here’s the problem: “We’re understaffed right now and have been understaffed for quite a while, just like the rest of the department,” Lt. Wallace said.
There aren’t enough horses or bike patrol officers to cover more than two areas:
[snip]
… [F]or all its successes, this program won’t last forever. The funding runs out on June 30.
Lesson One: Strategic deployment of police resources can make a difference in crime.
Lesson Two: Manpower and funding issues limit the effectiveness of these approaches.
So, are your Mayor and City Council busy trying to come up with funding to extend these successful sorts of manpower-intensive anti-crime programs?
A new ordinance adopted Wednesday requires every convenience store in the city to have color, digital surveillance cameras. They have 18 months to comply.
The videos come in handy when there’s a holdup. But sometimes the quality is so poor – you can tell what’s happening, but not who is doing it. The city hopes once criminals know all the cameras are taking good, sharp images — they’ll be reluctant to commit a crime in the first place.
[snip]
“I’m not going to tell you that we’re going to solve all crime everywhere, but it’s a series of steps where we focus on prevention,” Mayor Bill White said.
Here are some of the other new convenience store rules passed by city council:
