Tag Archives: HPD

Searching the couch cushions for loose change

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

That’s basically what this is. To say the city of Houston is working to cut a looming $120 million budget deficit one color copy at a time would not be accurate. It’s more like millions of color copies. Cellphones no … Continue reading →

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A “Mike Brown Law” for Houston

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: COMMUNITY TOWN HALL 12/4 TO DEMAND MIKE BROWN LAW HOUSTON- Hundreds plan to attend a town hall organized by Houston Justice, a grassroots activist group aimed at local criminal justice reform. The first goal is to pass … Continue reading →

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Re-revisiting red light cameras

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

This horse is dead. Please stop beating it. Four years after Houston voters rejected red-light cameras, the divisive issue unexpectedly resurfaced Tuesday when police officials presented figures indicating that removing the cameras made 51 busy intersections more dangerous. Auto crashes … Continue reading →

Posted in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

McClelland wants more money for more cops

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

And I want some answers before we go along with this request. Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland asked city leaders Tuesday for an additional $105 million over five years to hire hundreds of new officers as part of a plan … Continue reading →

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More suspects arrested from the rape kit backlog

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

More good news. Houston’s effort to test a nearly three-decade backlog of sexual assault kits has resulted in new charges filed against 19 people, city officials said Monday, including 10 suspects identified and arrested for the first time. One of … Continue reading →

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Body cameras for HPD

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I’ll be very interested to see how this goes. Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland is asking City Hall for $8 million to equip 3,500 police officers over three years with small body cameras to record encounters between law enforcement and … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Punishment | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Ogg challenges Anderson’s handling of Ryan Chandler investigation

Posted on August 23, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

This gets a little complicated, so stay with me. A county prosecutor who was engaged to fired Houston homicide detective Sgt. Ryan Chandler emailed him an office database search of all his cases as he was under investigation for possible … Continue reading →

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Game room lawsuit dismissed

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From last week: After a lengthy tussle over new game room regulations for Harris County, a federal judge Tuesday issued an order denying requests from a local game room owner to stop the new regulations. “The game room situation in … Continue reading →

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Grits on the HPD staffing debate

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Grits weighs in on the HPD no-investigations story with some suggestions for how to proceed. Here’s how to boost the number of police officers available on patrol while freeing up officers to work as detectives in the burglary and other … Continue reading →

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We need more context to the HPD no-investigations issue

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Regular commenter Steven Houston left this feedback on my “More reaction to the HPD no-investigations report” post. It raises some good points and helped me focus my thinking on a couple of things, so I wanted to reproduce it and … Continue reading →

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On cops and the revenue cap

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Mayor Parker again calls attention to the city’s stupid revenue cap and the things it will prevent the city from doing if it is left in place. If Houston voters do not want police pulled from the streets next year, … Continue reading →

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More reaction to the HPD no-investigations report

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I’m not the only one that wasn’t impressed by Chief McClelland’s response. [Burglary victim Heather] Heinke’s experience is not unusual in the nation’s fourth-largest city. A recent HPD staffing study says that 15,000 burglaries and thefts, 3,000 hit-and-run crashes and … Continue reading →

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McClelland’s response

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I have to say, I’m not impressed. Defending his department’s failure to investigate thousands of crimes last year, Police Chief Charles McClelland on Thursday said the understaffed Houston Police Department does not and should not have a goal of aggressively … Continue reading →

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Those uninvestigated criminal cases

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

To say the least, this is big news. The Houston Police Department, already reeling from a scandal involving shoddy work in its homicide unit, was dealt another blow Monday when a report revealed that some 20,000 burglary, theft, assault and … Continue reading →

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The cars in the bayous

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Boy, does this sound like a great opening to a crime novel. Houston’s bayous, dotted by marshy banks and filled with bass and catfish, weave through the city, providing an appealing landscape for joggers and cyclists. But beneath the murky, … Continue reading →

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

The other three foot rule

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

This is a little bold for my taste. A Houston bicyclist is testing a year-old safety ordinance intended to ensure motorists don’t get closer than three feet from riders. While riding in the designated bike lanes of the Memorial area … Continue reading →

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Council approves hoarding ordinance

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

I think they’re on the right track. The Houston City Council unanimously approved an anti-hoarding ordinance Wednesday without a clear idea of how it will be enforced. The ordinance, which does not apply to single-family homes, clarifies when police can … Continue reading →

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HPD’s good, bad, and ugly

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The good news is that the testing of backlogged rape kits has led to the identification of a serial rapist in Houston. Houston police on Tuesday for the first time identified a criminal suspect – a possible serial rapist – … Continue reading →

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Goal Zero Fatalities plan for bikes adopted

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the Mayor’s office: Mayor Annise Parker today announced the City and BikeHouston are joining forces to launch a major bike safety campaign to enforce and educate motorists and cyclists about the existing Safe Passing Ordinance, as well as create … Continue reading →

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HPD crime lab update

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The man who wrote the report detailing all of the HPD crime lab’s problems was back to give a progress report on how things look now. Houston police managers at the once-shuttered crime lab have failed to re-examine tests on … Continue reading →

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More details on the rape kit backlog results

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

HPD reports to Council about the progress of testing done on the backlogged rape kits. No false arrests by Houston police have been uncovered during an ongoing $4.4 million testing of thousands of old rape kits, but new suspects have … Continue reading →

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Clearing the rape kit backlog is producing results

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Very promising results. Private forensic laboratories hired to clear the Houston Police Department’s untested DNA evidence – including a decades-old rape kit backlog – have identified potential offenders in a third of the cases where sufficient DNA samples were found, … Continue reading →

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Funding after school programs

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

This should be a no-brainer. To combat youth crime, a former Houston police chief says the city must first solve another problem: unstable and inadequate funding for after-school programs. City Councilman C.O. Bradford said it is more urgent than ever … Continue reading →

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Murder by numbers 2013

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The beginning of the new year means a look back at the homicide count for the previous year. Homicides are up in unincorporated Harris County, where the Sheriff’s Office is reporting a nearly 20 percent uptick in 2013, preliminary year-end … Continue reading →

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Police cameras

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It’s disappointing that Houston lags behind other cities in using dashboard cameras in police cars, but I am glad to see we are trying to catch up. Houston police have fewer dashboard cameras than any major Texas law enforcement agency, … Continue reading →

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The new justice complex

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a big deal. Houston leaders are in the early stages of planning a new police headquarters and courthouse complex that Mayor Annise Parker said could be the most important project on which she will work during her six-year tenure. … Continue reading →

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More security cameras coming

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

You’re being recorded, like it or not. Houston is adding 180 downtown surveillance cameras despite shrinking national security grants and research showing that video feeds only sometimes improve public safety. By early next year, the Houston Police Department will have … Continue reading →

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City settles longstanding litigation with strip clubs

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

From the Mayor’s press release: Recognizing Houston is a hub for human trafficking, the City and 16 area topless clubs have entered into a novel settlement agreement aimed at addressing this heinous crime, ending litigation dating back to 1997 when … Continue reading →

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Bradford calls for review of HPD oversight

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

He’s right that something needs to be done to ensure that people feel confident in the system. Houston City Councilman and former Police Chief C.O. “Brad” Bradford said citizens have lost faith in the city’s oversight of the use of … Continue reading →

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A deeper look at the city’s pension funds

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

I appreciate this just-the-facts analysis of the city’s pension funds. It’s delightfully free of fearmongering and doomsaying, which tend to cloud most stories on the funds. I don’t have anything specific to say about the article, but I do want … Continue reading →

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Going after the dumpers

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Glad to see this. City Council District B will be the site of a pilot program in which five surveillance video cameras have been placed in undisclosed locations, [Mayor Annise] Parker announced. The cameras will be monitored in real time … Continue reading →

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We must destroy the pensions in order to save them

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

There’s so much wrong with this I almost don’t know where to begin. Houston is the Titanic – it certainly looks impressive, but icebergs lie ahead. That’s the image that mayoral candidate Ben Hall drew when he talked to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

HPD disciplinary matters

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Having recently talked about mayoral plans for crimefighting in Houston, let me recommend that you read Emily DePrang’s excellent two-part story about the discipline process at the Houston Police Department – here’s part one, Crimes Unpunished, and part two, The … Continue reading →

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Hall’s five point crimefighting plan

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Houstonians do not feel safe in their homes and their communities. Houston’s crime numbers remain dangerously high and criminals are victimizing us daily. The only thing we hear from the Mayor’s office on this issue is silence. … Continue reading →

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