Perry pledges $10M to Houston-area crime fighting

During a campaign stop in Houston yesterday, Gov. Rick Perry announced his plan for fighting crime in Houston: a $10 million effort to coordinate law enforcement efforts among more than 100 agencies in Harris, Fort Bend, Brazoria and Galveston counties. The joint operations and intelligence center will put more police officers on the streets, improve local agencies' technology and better link state and local intelligence.

"We will not stand idly by as our innocent citizens and police officers ... fall victim in their homes or on our streets to the growing threat posed by international and domestic gangs and drug-trafficking organizations," Perry said. He said Texans would respond "with the full force and fury of a people who do not take lightly the lives lost and blood shed by those would perpetrate senseless violence."

The center will be modeled on similar programs along the border, which Perry's office says have reduced violent crime by up to 70 percent in some communities, according to the Houston Business Journal. Perry said Houston's crime problem doesn't have a single cause, so solving the problem will require a multifaceted approach like the JOIC could give.

Perry's announcement makes him the third of four major gubernatorial candidates to make proposals on reducing crime in Houston: Independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn said this week she would double the size of the Texas Rangers and put the agency over security and counterterrorism efforts statewide, and fellow independent Kinky Friedman recommended giving $100 million to Houston for additional police officers and sending 10,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border to help reduce crime. Democrat Chris Bell hasn't made any formal proposals on Houston crime.