Last week, KHOU-11 ran a story by Christine Haas that featured Jay Wall, a CompStat advocate and HPD critic whose arguments should be familiar to readers here:
1) HPD’s misleading murder reporting (documented well by KHOU’s Mark Greenblatt) casts doubt on HPD’s leadership generally.
2) CompStat is a proven management tool that could be used to good effect in Houston, especially given HPD’s reduced manpower.
3) HPD’s “Real Time Crime Information Center” is not “CompStat on Steroids” (as HPD and City officials allege from time to time, mistakenly), since it is reactive and is an information resource, not a comprehensive, proactive crimefighting/management tool (like CompStat).
The Haas story dealt with all three themes, albeit with varying degrees of success:
1) HPD’s misreporting of crime statistics is only referenced in passing. Viewers/readers unfamiliar with Mark Greenblatt’s reporting probably won’t understand why this is an important issue — or even that it is an issue.
2) The management tool point is only made in passing, and the point is not well developed. The fact is, the combination of accountability AND proactive crime targeting/prevention are reasons why CompStat has seen success elsewhere (and occasional grumbling from entrenched people who feel threatened by change). The smarter use of crimefighting resources would seem to be a no-brainer here, because of the manpower shortage.
3) Opponents of CompStat are either intentionally or ignorantly trying to portray the Real Time Crime Information Center as something it is not — an alternative to CompStat. CompStat is a management approach to fighting crime. HPD’s Real Time Crime Information Center is an information tool at best (and there are questions about its robustness). When the police union president compares the two in this story, he appears to be advancing the MayorWhiteChiefHurtt PR/political line — but the comparison isn’t accurate. And it was probably confusing for viewers.
This story appears to have suffered from trying to be overly ambitious and cover too much. If area journalists tackle these important topics in the future (especially points 2 and 3, since Greenblatt has done some good reporting on 1), it might be nice to see points 2 and 3 above treated in some depth — with more expert commentary on the success of CompStat where it has been tried, and more expert commentary on the differences between CompStat and the Real Time Crime Information Center. We certainly hope that CompStat gets a fairer hearing from the city’s next mayor (and, hopefully, a new police chief who understands CompStat), whoever that turns out to be.
