Mayor to Houston's criminals: Stop it!

KTRK reported Sunday on Mayor Bill White's field trip to the crime-ridden apartments of southwest Houston:

The shooting death of an evacuee living in a motel is exactly the kind of crime Mayor Bill White and Houston police are working to stop.

The mayor rode along with officers Saturday night in the city's hot spots in southwest and west Houston. Crime is on the rise, specifically around large apartment complexes. The mayor says several people who lived a life of crime in Louisiana, are now calling Houston home and causing problems. He says that's going to stop.

HPD has increased patrols in the area and the officers are on an overtime program.

Houstonist has been following the recent crime wave that's caught HPD off-guard. Murders have been on the rise, and half the murders in the last three months have taken place in apartment complexes. Houstonist has suspected the criminal element of the evacuee population is a factor no one's been talking about, so it's interesting to hear Mayor Bill openly acknowledge it.

Regardless of who's causing the problems, things aren't going to get better until HPD gets its staffing problems fixed and apartment managers begin taking more responsibility for the safety of their tenants — or until Mayor Bill gets back on the citizen's arrest bandwagon.