HPD chief: We need help

HPD Chief Harold Hurtt called on city leaders to direct more funding to police and on the public to help fight crime in neighborhoods during a visit with the Chronicle's editorial board yesterday, saying the department is stretched thin as violent crime increases.

Hurtt said HPD has 4,800 police officers, or about 2.3 officers for every 1,000 Houston residents. With the estimated 150,000 evacuees living in Houston added to the mix, the ratio drops to 1.9 officers per 1,000 residents. The national average is 2.8 officers per 1,000 people — according to Houstonist's calculations, that means the city needs about 1,400 more officers to meet that average. And though HPD recruits officers and graduates new ones from its academy, the projected net increase from those efforts is just 100 officers a year for the next five years, Hurtt said. In addition to personnel, Hurtt said the department needs investment in technology like a new radio communication system, which will cost $153 million.

The chief also addressed the increase in violent crime at apartment complexes in recent months:

"The only way we're going to be successful is if citizens step up," he said. "If they see something, (if) they hear something, we need to know."

He suggested that landlords at large apartment complexes be required to hire an officer for security, or that the city charge an extra fee to complexes that place high demands on police resources. City officials are studying similar options.

Apartment complexes make up half of the city's housing but were the scenes of most of the homicides that occurred during the last four months of 2005.

Since Sept. 1, Houston police have recorded 25 homicides involving Katrina evacuees. In 10 cases, evacuees were the victims; in seven they were the suspects; and in eight, both the victims and the suspects were Katrina evacuees.

If the department had the resources, Hurtt said, the most effective way to fight crime in apartment complexes would be to station officers on foot and on bicycles there. HPD has proposed several ways to draw officers to the department, but none has won city approval yet.