In this week’s Houston Press, Rich Connelly details another example of our city’s fine leadership on crime:
Texas Observer recently took a look at the Houston Police Department’s method of handling family-violence calls and came away decidedly unimpressed.
HPD officers, TO said, are not required — as officers in other agencies often are — to seek arrest warrants for alleged abusers who have fled the scene. Instead they just tell the victims to, essentially, be careful out there.
HPD Chief Harold Hurtt, who loudly proclaims domestic violence to be a priority, wouldn’t talk with TO or with us, and the office of Mayor White — another loud proclaimer of the priority of fighting domestic violence — referred us to HPD.
Instead, the department spokesman was forced to talk substantively about the policy (or, rather, the lack thereof) and the department’s manpower shortage.
Strange, but we think of that as MayorWhiteChiefHurtt’s job — especially since this is a pet issue (at least in speeches, sometimes).
