Whoa. KHOU-11’s Jeremy Rogalski has spent quite a bit of time uncovering some of Precinct 4 Constable’s office shenanigans. It seems that homeowners associations pay quite a bit of money to get extra patrols from Constable Ron Hickman’s deputies, but the time spent patrolling contracted areas is often not what ends up being reported in departmental paperwork:
More than 80 homeowners associations and municipal utility districts have signed a contract with Constable Hickman’s office for extra security. They generally pay around $55,000 per year per deputy to patrol their neighborhoods. Deputies are supposed to spend 70 percent of their average monthly time in those neighborhoods or “contracts,” with the rest spent outside in the general Precinct 4 district.
But the 11 News Defenders discovered in some cases, documents were altered and falsified to make it appear deputies were spending more time in those neighborhoods than they actually were. Even worse, former and current Precinct 4 employees say the deputies were directed to do it.
“It looks like someone took liquid paper and whited it out,” Holden said after 11 News showed her some records for the MUD 191 contract deputy, where she lives.
Those records show how daily activity sheets submitted for approval were altered to make it appear the deputy was spending more time in the contract neighborhood than he actually was.
During the month of July 2007, the deputy showed in one daily activity sheet that he had worked 253 minutes — nearly four hours — outside the MUD 191 area he was contracted to patrol. But after a supervisor reviewed that document, the time mysteriously was changed to just three minutes, making it look as if he barely left the subdivision. The same thing happened with the activity sheet for the deputy’s next day — 234 minutes away from the contract neighborhood was cut nearly in half to 132. The pattern continued on other days as well — 271 minutes cut down to just 51, and 197 minutes changed to 64.
The end result? The changes made it look like the MUD neighborhood got more protection than it did that month.
“It’s very alarming,” Holden said. “We shouldn’t have to police the police,” she added.
Turns out, Holden said during this very same period, many of her neighbors were hit by thieves.
“We had homes broken into, and I always wondered what made them that comfortable to take that many items,” Holden said.
Constable Hickman’s response?
[…]until it’s brought to my attention so I can address it properly, how am I supposed to know?”
But it would be hard not to know, according to one former Precinct 4 employee, who asked not to be identified.
“It’s agency wide, it’s common practice,” the former employee said. “They’re told in their training that they will be altering documents.”
There’s much more in KHOU’s story. Hickman had a challenger in the primary a while back, but Hickman won.
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