West side, east side: Houston's crime see-saw

We rang in 2007 with a mixed message about Houston's crime rate: Though the homicide rate reached a 12-year high in 2006, instances of other crimes decreased last year. Today, thanks to KTRK's mystical Crime Tracker, we know a little more about exactly how those stats break down — and in short, things are better in the notorious Fondren/southwest district, but not so good on the east side.

The Crime Tracker found that the Fondren area — which HPD targeted last year through overtime patrols and the crime van — saw the biggest drop in violent crime of any part of Houston last year. The number of violent crimes in the area dropped 8 percent from 2005 to 2006, a change HPD Capt. Bruce Williams attributed to "a combination of intelligence gathering, undercover work, and uniform patrols." On the east side, however, violent crime increased 9 percent last year, and it looks like that area might be the next focus for police: City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, who represents much of the East End, told Channel 13 that police overtime programs will be used to help get a handle on things. "We intentionally put overtime into the budget for that particular area so we can have a pretty strong presence, a constant presence in the community," she said.

East Houston wasn't the only area with a spike in violent crime last year, though: According to KTRK, the Clear Lake area had a 7.9 percent increase, northwest Houston saw a 7.3 percent jump and central Houston recorded a 6.9 percent increase in 2006. The area with the largest jump in violent crime was Kingwood, where the number of crimes increased by a whopping 32 percent last year. But as KTRK notes, "the number of crimes is so small compared to other districts that any increase or decrease distorts the comparison."