HPD rolls out bad times van

Criminals beware: HPD is takin' it to the streets with its mobile command unit, a van that will hit high-crime areas throughout the city and strike fear in the heart of miscreants of all kinds. Yes, that's right: a van. (Not one like this, though. We think.)

The first target for the crime van is the Fondren area, the heart of a part of town that's seen a significant spike in crime since the fall, but it will eventually be deployed to other southwest Houston neighborhoods with a high concentration of high-crime apartment complexes.

"There are crime hot spots in Houston where the crime rates are unacceptable," said Mayor Bill White. "They were going up and it was a trend that had been going for several years."

[HPD Chief Harold] Hurtt said the mobile command unit will be placed in neighborhoods and apartment parking lots. The unit will be used to collect intelligence on suspicious activity and deploy law enforcement resources where needed.

The goal of the van, Hurtt said, is not just to make arrests, but to get offenders sent up the river. "If we can pick them on anything to get them in jail, we're going to try to have enough charges on them not just to arrest them and put them in county jail but send them to prison," he said. The van will be near Fondren and Bellfort until May 6.