Dealing with Houston's crime spike

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt confirmed yesterday that Houston's homicide rate has spiked this year — compared with 2004, it's up 24 percent so far this year and up 70 percent in the last two months. The majority of killings, Hurtt said, began as violent disturbances, mostly in and around apartment complexes. Over the weekend, Mayor Bill White blamed the increased crime rate on some renegade Katrina evacuees — sorta — but the police shied away from that in Wednesday's press conference.

"It's an unfortunate fact that a majority of homicides occur in apartment complexes," said homicide Capt. Dale Brown. "Has it always been that way? The answer is probably no. But that's the case now, and it's something we have to deal with."

Brown would not comment on what impact the influx of Katrina evacuees — many of whom swelled the populations of a number of low-income apartment complexes in September — have had on the homicide spike. He did suggest, however, that any sudden increase in population is typically accompanied by a rise in crime.

"It creates stress out there, that you see the effects of in a lot of different ways. ... What we're seeing now is more localized in those areas that have been affected the most," he said.

"You're bringing people with different cultures, different backgrounds, they have different lifestyles there in New Orleans than we have in Houston," Brown said. "The equilibrium was thrown out of whack."

Last week, HPD said it will increase patrols at five high-crime apartment complexes across the city, but proposals to rank complexes based on safety and require some apartments to have security officers or gates haven't been acted on. A deal that would allow HPD to hire out-of-work officers from around the country to ease a personnel shortage is still being discussed, too.

Meanwhile, HISD announced it will increase its police force by about 10 percent in the spring to help reduce confrontations between local students and evacuees enrolled in Houston schools.

When school resumes in January, roughly 30 off-duty Houston Police Department officers will be added to part-time patrol duties at 18 secondary schools. HISD will also increase random weapon and drug searches by canine units and create a five-member task force to respond to any emergency situations in the 305-campus district, official said.

The increased security efforts come after a dozen or so significant fights in HISD between Houston students and Katrina evacuees, including one earlier this month at Westbury High School that resulted in 27 arrests. In September, five students were arrested after a fight at Jones High School.

For some reason, other local school districts — which have taken in some 14,000 evacuee students combined — said they haven't had a need to increase security at their campuses.