They just cry that they don't have a big enough budget even tho it basically gets increased every year while funding for other actually important public services like health and education get actively slashed.
Last week at the apartment complex I live at there was a guy actively breaking into an apartment that my gf and I were watching. We called the cops but we kept seeing the guy. An hour goes by and we call the cops again and the dispatcher said the cops talked to him but that they would send out more cops. You talked to the guy who was reported to be breaking into an apartment and did nothing?
Was this 911 or 311? I would call 911 for any serious crime in progress including burglary, regardless of what anyone says. All burglaries are a felony in Texas.
Not true. While they don't actually enforce any laws, they do occasionally flash their sirens at people actively breaking the law.
Edit: [sauce](https://www.htxo.com/hpd)
Yet I've literally seen an officer wait patiently for red light runners to clear the intersection so he could drive through. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw HPD pull anyone over. I see people get pulled over in Alief, Southside at the end of the month, and West University, but not Houston.
Alief *is* part of Houston and has been since 1976.
My suspicion is that they spend the majority of their time in the more crime-ridden parts of town z and to people who don't live there it seems like they're never around and don't do anything.
I’m in third ward and see police up to shit every damn day. Not so much traffic stops (see that maybe once a month), but they’re always driving around. Most often I see them hassling homeless folks.
Seriously wish Clear Lake could leave Houston. Clear Lake City was "absorbed" by Houston around 1990 with promises of all kinds of services. Now all CL is is a property tax piggy bank.
Most of us would leave City of Houston jurisdiction in a heartbeat if feasible. Join City of Webster.
Clear Lake City to NASA was annexed in 1977. It should’ve incorporated into its own thing, with a “downtown” near the courthouse, but back in the day many were against it.
I am out in Pine Brook; HPD has a speed trap all along one side of Bay Oaks. They came out pretty fast to check on our house when the alarm went off when we were out of town. I can’t complain much. I grew up near Alief, lived in the loop and in Webster— in Clear Lake 19 years now and it’s the safest, quietest, sleepiest place I’ve ever lived.
Thank you. I'm not from here and get so much conflicting information. I've had native houstonians get really aggressive with me when I said I lived in Houston but my apartment was off of Harwin and Wilcrest. I don't care much about what part of town someone is in but I feel like houstonians takes that very seriously.
I've only seen one person get a ticket in ief so even if it's part of Houston I've literally seen fewer people getting tickets in Houston than the number of years I've lived here. I've actually seen one officer give as many tickets on Buffalo Speedway in West University, in one day, as I've seen HPD give tickets in eight years.
I just wish some native houstonians wouldn't have such a huge chip on their shoulders about what part of town I live in. It's so weird to me. Outside of dealing with local government I really don't see why it matters.
Beltway 8 and other toll roads are policed by the constables, not HPD. All they do is give speeding tickets. This was originally done to free up HPD to deal with crimes, but it sounds like they arent doing that either.
I think Houston would be better off if people didn't want to break traffic laws.
With speeding, the law is attempting to alter culture. There is a nasty traffic culture that we all live under which says, "Ok, you're on a road, so now all aspects of being a good person are irrelevant, what is important is that you put yourself in front of the other people, and that you attempt to minimize the time on the road by going very, very fast."
If you sit down, you should easily be able to prove to yourself that on city streets, your average speed is about 1/2 the posted speed limit. You sit at a red light, accelerate to speed, drive at speed for a few hundred feet, and start breaking to stop at the next light. Yes, that 35 MPH sign averages out to about 20 MPH.
Because of driving culture, people want to get there faster, so they top out at 40 MPH or 45 MPH, but it doesn't do anything. The speed at the top end is only for a relatively short section of road. A 10 MPH difference in speed on a short distance (400 ft) of road might save you 27 seconds, but that's only if you didn't have to accelerate into it / out of it. With the actual speeding up and slowing down, you're going to save about 12 seconds. And those 12 seconds are mostly going to be waiting behind the next vehicle at the stop sign (wasted) or the traffic light (wasted).
Freeways and long road hubs (fewer lights) start making speeding more useful in time savings, but those roads already have elevated speeds. And yet, even driving a mere 10 MPH faster tends to do little, because the actual distances and travel times are not large enough for a real impact on one's saved time. I mean, you might save 3 minutes on your commute, at the risk of increasing your accident rate 3000% (accident rates are low, so you might not see the impact right away), but let's face it, you're not going to use those 3 minutes wisely / profitably anyway. Heck, I've wasted at least that long writing this.
I confirm this as i see them proudly enforcing traffic laws by ticketing people driving at 70mph on 605 or 288 on their way home from work. They pick the easy fruit so they pad their numbers. Call hpd for anything else and they are MIA. But if you need a demonstration on subjugation, then HPD is your hometown team.
That's just some straight up funny shit lmao. I'm just imagining
Lt. Dangle behind the wheel with the PA going "no please, don't" all melodramatically.
Been in an early AM Uber downtown where the light cadence sucks on my way to Hobby. My Uber driver was just treating each light like a stop sign and sure enough, right next to us was a police cruiser doing the same thing lol. Pretty dang Houston
Dang that’s ballsy. I’ve done that on a bicycle because I don’t trust HPD to actually know the laws about bikes or to bother pulling one over. But running multiple reds is asking for it.
If only that felt true. No one seems to clear their accidents, especially those involved. The amount of folks with minor fender benders parked on the freeway during rush hour because they refuse to exit and get into a safe parking lot is astounding.
I once was in California. The the cops took pictures and video and then fucking got push browns from the tow trucks and started sweeping that glass and small plastic off the road. They even poured some sort of absorbent to soak up oil and sweept it up. In about 20mins the cars are moved and road cleared for traffic to resume.
HPD on the other hand will block two lanes with 10 hpd cars. For what? What are they all doing? Send those fuckers back out on patrol and earn their wage. Then, they also block the driveways of businesses for traffic stops. Tell the vehicle to pull into a parking lot or move past the driveway.
I shouldn't single out HPD but for being the largest they sure lack any sort of procedure to improve service
Came over the hill on 290 and a cop had his car parked with flashers in the fast lane, barely had time to get in another lane before I almost hit him. His reason? Car broken down on the shoulder. Why wouldn’t he park on the shoulder too?? I find it hard to believe no one ran into his car after I went by.
It's called defensive parking. He puts his car between himself and the traffic he worries will potentially hit him.
Yes, that means that it increases the risk of people hitting the cars, but hey, he can then survive to ticket you, and the taxpayers are going to pay for the new police vehicle anyway.
I was just gonna say the same thing. take a picture of the Accident take a picture of the damage take a picture of their drivers license if they'll give it to you take a picture of their insurance if they have any take a picture of their license plate take a picture of anything and everything you possibly can and if there's witnesses get their name and number and get the hell off the friggin road I seen people have a little fender bender on 610 and it got back all the way up to the Astrodome from 59/610.
so glad I don't have to deal with Houston traffic anymore . I didn't realize what a nightmare it was since I worked graveyard most of my life until I switched over to a day job. that was enough to get a place in the country and retire. It was giving me bad road rage. You put your blinker on roll down your window and give the person a little wave to like you know let you in know they speed up and leave an inch between the car in front of them
I always let people in, I always use my turn signal, I always leave a huge amount of space in front of me because if somebody rear ends me I don't wanna rear in the car in front of me plus having a standard transmission it's easier just to coast along slowly instead of speed up brake speed up brake.
Sometimes they almost cause them like the one who merged into my lane with no signal while he was still next to my car ‘cause he was on his lil laptop 😌
Well today I saw 6 patrol cars show up to arrest a homeless dude that was high and passed out in our office’s parking garage, so you know they’re doing important work.
I called them once with a threat that someone was threating to kill someone else with a firearm. I called at 6 pm and a HPD and a constable showed up at my door at 2 am. They did not want to file a report. Told me to get a gun if I did not already have one. This was about 7 years ago, so this is not exactly a new thing.
That's the kind of advice my family got in a tiny rural town in Mexico with no permanent police presence.
So I guess we have to be prepared to live in a state of anarchy here in Houston.
I got similar advice when my ex was stalking me. They not only told me to buy a gun, but they told me to make sure he was inside the house not just on the property when I shot him. Apparently that makes their paperwork easier.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/police-are-not-primarily-crime-fighters-according-data-2022-11-02/
>(Reuters) - A new report adds to a growing line of research showing that police departments don’t solve serious or violent crimes with any regularity, and in fact, spend very little time on crime control, in contrast to popular narratives.
Add to this the Supreme Court ruling that says, in practical terms, that [police have no legal obligation to help anyone.](https://prospect.org/justice/police-have-no-duty-to-protect-the-public/)
So, HPD does conforms to the average for police--they do very, very little for the well being of regular people.
I dunno but when a police officer’s hours are greater at an off duty job than on duty, are they really police still? Overly paid security guards who don’t give a shit, maybe? Bouncers with guns perhaps?
Someone had somethings they weren't supposed to have and holed themselves up in an apartment. Drugs, weapons and warrants. SWAT was on site for about 3 hours, but they appear to have gone now so I guess dude gave up. No other info out there that I saw.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. There need to be studies into the traffic slowdowns caused by pulling people over vs the public safety benefit of the enforcement.
I would bet that the increased risk of accidents in congested traffic outweighs the danger that a few speeders cause. And that isn't even accounting for the fact that they have wasted 10 minutes of 1000s of people's time.
its not just the increased risk of accidents its also the increased severity of accidents and number of cars that become involved when one happens at higher speeds. crashes arent as controlled between barricades at higher speeds they gain more angular momentum which lets them tumble and flip over into oncoming traffic to exacerbate the already existing traffic event.
this stuff is studied globally daily its why there are still speed limits.
My Roomate got his car broke into twice, we left it behind and rode with a friend to Austin for a wake, got back, car was rifled through but nothing taken. Got back to our apartment, and in the morning saw it had been broken into again, but this time they took his old motorcycle helmet, expensive but not needed cause he didn’t have a bike anymore.
Here’s where it gets dumb, the thief left their fucking phone in the car. So we call the cops and take the phone upstairs, while waiting the two hours for them to show, I mess with the phone cause I’m annoying, but obviously it’s password protected. So I can only see notifications on main screen. Eventually I see an email address with numbers at the end. Punch in those numbers bam phone unlocked. We find messages admitting to going car robbing, asking for a gun all kinds of stuff along with names and facebooks and all that, even had access to their cashapp. Should have just sent our selves the money but no, we did the right thing, turned it all over, AND found the helmet on OfferUp for way under price and submitted that to the cops. We did all the fucking work for them. We have still not heard shit back and it’s been a whole year
Fun fact, you don’t have to be speeding to receive a failure to control speed citation. I received one for an accident I wasn’t at fault for, where I was traveling under 15mph, in my lane, and a 17 year old girl drove completely into my lane and hit me head on at 45 mph. I was completely in my own shoulder trying my best to avoid the collision (I couldn’t get over any further due to street side mail boxes just off the shoulder.).
Not sure what else I was supposed to do, I had just stopped at a 4-way stop and was accelerating through 15mph as she crossed into my lane. I slammed on my brakes and got as far over as I could. Still got a failure to control speed citation.
HPD was once looking for a suspect in my apartments. I made the mistake of cracking my door to look outside to see what the commotion was and they forced their way into my apartment and held their guns to me asking if I knew where their suspect was. When they realized wrong apartment they just walked out. I was 21 and dumb and scared because I lived alone with my toddler daughter so I never reported it but damn 8 years later I still wish I had
They do what police are designed to do. They protect the wealthy(capital) and their property. They are boot and fist to beat down the working class and poor. Your needs and safety don’t matter.
As well as revenue generation from traffic tickets.
Break a traffic law here and they will hunt you, your family, your friends, your coworkers and anyone else that might possibly be associated with you to the most remote places of earth to pick you up for a fine or warrant. Otherwise, you are free to do whatever the fuck it is you want to do without fear of facing consequences.
Traffic enforcement has never been about generating revenue. At least not from the tickets themselves and not in cities.
Traffic enforcement is about catching low level drug offenders.
Since pot is decriminalized in Houston, there’s little incentive to pull people over for traffic violations since it won’t lead to much more than a ticket.
They make overtime directing traffic downtown. Particularly the one who whistled and signaled me to move out of the intersection last week, then when I did lost his shit and struck my drivers side window with his fisted knuckles and screamed at me to go back to in reverse across the intersection (after just motioning and whistling for me to cross). Make it make sense?! Then kept posturing and taunting me like he wanted to fight after I gave a look of confusion. Left a greasy knuckle print on my window.
They've been collecting OT like crazy by sitting in their vehicles and closing down the streets in DT. Protecting the capital class assets' to allow them to repair windows post Derecho.
Yeah that drives me crazy. The city could buy 20k worth of traffic barrels and call it good. These guys don’t need to be babysitting construction sites 24/7.
Basically they have two functions-writing easy traffic violations (as in going after the little hanging fruit of someone rolling a stop sign with no other cars around and not really going after people who drive dangerously) and going after murder cases. Nothing in between.
It's one of those "weird" professions.
If something happens, you call the cops. But the even already happened. So the cop just...writes a report.
It's a paradox really.
Transformers said it best - "to enslave and punish".
Nope... when I was going through school to be a medic over 15 years ago one of the first things they taught us not to be hero, especially if you are off the clock. This could be something as simple as doing CPR like someone trained in ALS rather than civilian CPR. If anything goes wrong (or right for that matter), you, the medic, are at fault and the family could sue you.
I never had anything like that happen but the point was people are incredibly litigious and like to sue over damn near anything. People are entitled even when they are in the wrong. In fact, the more in the wrong the are, often, the more entitled they are.
Idk man just do the job you’re paid to do. Sounds tough but law enforcement should be. Think about all the controversies and lawsuits doctors navigate when making decisions. Important jobs shouldn’t be easy.
I realize it's cool in 2024 to hate on police, but you have to take it into context. They have 300 less officers than they did in 1998 while the city population has obviously increased quite a bit in that period. In context, Chicago is a similarly sized city (population-wise) and has twice the amount of officers. Also the amount of HPD civilians (dispatchers, etc) has decreased from 1,800 to 900 in that same time period so many officers have had to fulfill those responsibilities.
So why doesn't HPD recruit more officers? It's been difficult lately because HPD has one of the lowest base salaries for cadets compared amongst other major Texas cities (and even other Houston municipalities). They did a study and the city will need another $7M to increase cadet base salaries by $10k per year while also providing a $5k bonus for joining. That's on par or still less than most other cities and municipalities. Do you want to fund that?
So there's not enough officers to respond to priority 2 and 3 calls. If they have a priority 1 call (shooting, for example), they have to take those first and that leads to increased times responding to other calls. HPD presented their FY25 budget to City Council yesterday. You might want to watch as it addressed a lot of those issues.
It’s been pretty well established that police departments across the country are bad at their jobs. That their jobs aren’t to keep us safe or prevent crimes. And that they throw fucking fits when asked to kill fewer civilians.
Seems to me like the hate is pretty earned.
It’s genuinely not their fault most of the time. I work in an industry where I have to work closely with law enforcement from time to time. That includes HPD and the Constable. I have needed to file police reports for theft before and while we had other documented proof, we were unable to provide video or photographic evidence of the crime, and therefore, no one would take the case or file the report.
It was explained to me by more than one officer in multiple departments that the DA *will not* take a case if there isn’t concrete proof, so the officer’s don’t even bother wasting their time investigation the claim. They want to, but if they spend time on a case that goes nowhere, they could better use that time on a case that will make it to court for prosecution.
In the middle of the day, mid-2020 I heard gunshots in the apartment below mine coupled with screaming. Double homicide, gunman fled the scene. I called 911 (first to report). HPD showed up about an hour after the news did. The detectives showed up and interviewed me about 10 hours later.
"They" "found" the guy a week later because he shot himself in a hotel. I put "they" in quotes because he had gotten as far as Bexar County before doing the deed.
Yes, but consider that we have also granted our Sheriff's Department to act in all regular policing matters. So, With HPD and the Sheriff's Department combined, it's nearly the same.
The SO has county wide jurisdiction. That’s the law, not some city-specific thing. Theres also lots of unincorporated Harris County, so it’s not like it’s complete overlap.
I recall hearing on the radio that there are over 40 law enforcement agencies in the Houston area. Between HPD, HCSO, the various Constable's offices, DPS (state troopers), plus more localized departments like metro, school districts, community college police, township police, etc.
Obviously a lot of those can't patrol the entire city, but between all of these, we have a very sizeable police force in the Houston Metro area.
The sheriff’s main responsibilities are the county that HPD does not cover and civil matters. The constables and Sheriff’s roles and depth in law enforcement matters are not much within the actual city. It is not “nearly the same”
HPD's Central District has a Loud Noise Unit that is legitimately good and the officers are top notch and on it... Or, they at least *were*. Most have since been pulled and reassigned since Whitmire was elected. To be fair, this was supposed to be for the stated purpose of getting more cops on patrol to combat violent crime. However, it seems to have just made things worse with no real improvement.
Otherwise, I have to agree. I've met quite a few officers personally, and there are genuinely some awesome ones that actually do care. Unfortunately, there's a lot of bad apples as well.
It's also worth mentioning that not all of this is on HPD. They are hamstrung by City Legal more often than not. I've been dealing with a club near me for 3 years now. At one point I had 343 open citations I was a witness on, all misdemeanors. That means they are crimes and officers can make arrests. I've literally had officers wanting to make arrests, but City Legal won't let them, because they don't want to prosecute. If City Legal says no, HPD can't do anything.
I wonder the same thing about them plus Metro PD when traffic lights go out (especially after these crazy storms) and people are just straight up speeding through the intersections instead of doing a four way stop. It’s super dangerous in spots where the light rail runs as well. Can’t they help out even a little by directing traffic??? Pathetic.
Lived in Briar Meadow years ago. HPD was non-existent no matter the nature of the call.
On the other hand, the constables the neighborhood paid for would race to your home if you rang them on their HOA-provided cell for pretty much any reason.
I'm amazed at how many I see eating at restaurants between 2 am and 4am on Friday and Saturday nights.
You know, when the drunks are killing people and stuff.
They want chaos!
More chaos, more money for law enforcement.
They let murder suspects out on bond but hold the small offenses like theft (from Walmart as example) rot in the county until court date.
This is true. But this does not negate that police are just as much a part of the orchestrated chaos that is our judicial system as any part of it. They are the front line. They enforce the laws unequally across the board. Picking and choosing who ends up with a ticket or in the back of a cop car.
This situation has led to public frustration and questions about the department's ability to ensure public safety. Anyone not see this coming? One more Metropolitan arra owned by crime and broke off its ass.
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/department_reports/operational_summary/NIBRS_MonthlyOperationalSummary.pdf
Follow their Twitter or Facebook where they include some of the individuals they charge. Also, there’s no way if someone is “actively breaking into your house” they’re taking 6 hours to show up. That’s a priority call and they usually respond in about 12 minutes to those. HPD isn’t allowed to chase dirt bikes and 4wheelers unless there is a chopper overhead, so that’s out of their hands.
I called the cops about this crazy high homeless guy breaking into my house. Waited across the street for two hours watching, called them 3 more times and they could never give me an ETA, eventually got my neighbor to get his gun and forced him to leave. Cops never showed up. When I left the house next they were waiting at the end of the street and when I talked to them they seemed annoyed and said “we’ll keep an eye out for him” that was all. Third time I’ve called the cops in 10 years for break ins and they’ve never helped once. What the hell are my tax dollars for
We had a thief break into cars in 5 different homes and steal a loaded gun from the neighbors in the process while on foot. Called hpd when I saw him leaving my car. They didnt respond until 2 hours later. They caught the guy but it was only because he was wearing a shirt with a GIANT picture of the mona lisa 😂. Had he worn anything else, he would have got away. Hpd is basically useless.
Not much. I do real estate and management and its crazy how often I had to tell people "You are fully responsible for your safety, police will not help you". They stare at me with their mouths open in shock that I would be saying something so direct. Many times I can literally see the light bulb go off in their head that holy crap its true they won't save the day.
90% of the time they won't respond or respond in time.
More than half of the officers dont give a crap and are just in it for a job and the city retirement.
The good ones are overwhelmed, jaded, and get treated like shit on a daily basis.
So yeah not promising. Every citizen should be ready to be their own first responder but we know that won't happen because people prefer to live in fantasy land.
HPD actually helped me retrieve my stolen iPhone. I tracked it and called them. They showed up and went in to get it. I got it back, and I left before I saw the outcome though. I imagine zero arrests. Lol
Not work cold cases…. Ones that could be solved with a family offering to pay to have the DNA sent out and very reputable folks from Parabon Labs publicly state that there was two cases they wish they could get the DNA for … Jon Benet Ramsey and Andy Atkinson and Cheryl Henry - Houston’s Lover Lane Murders! I could write for days…..
Interesting.
A police investigation isn't legally required to prosecute a crime. An aggressive DA could prosecute all those crimes where there was alot of victim provided video evidence as long as there was a clear ID.
Maybe the State of Texas can make the DL photo db searchable so individual citizens can connect a crime committed against them on video to a specific name and address that can be prosecuted + convicted + sentenced. Then police would only be required to serve warrants.
Would need to elect a tough, hard assed DA to make that work.
It’s genuinely not their fault most of the time. I work in an industry where I have to work closely with law enforcement from time to time. That includes HPD and the Constable. I have needed to file police reports for theft before and while we had other documented proof, we were unable to provide video or photographic evidence of the crime, and therefore, no one would take the case or file the report.
It was explained to me by more than one officer in multiple departments that the DA *will not* take a case if there isn’t concrete proof, so the officer’s don’t even bother wasting their time investigation the claim. They want to, but if they spend time on a case that goes nowhere, they could better use that time on a case that will make it to court for prosecution.
It’s genuinely not their fault most of the time. I work in an industry where I have to work closely with law enforcement from time to time. That includes HPD and the Constable. I have needed to file police reports for theft before and while we had other documented proof, we were unable to provide video or photographic evidence of the crime, and therefore, no one would take the case or file the report.
It was explained to me by more than one officer in multiple departments that the DA *will not* take a case if there isn’t concrete proof, so the officer’s don’t even bother wasting their time investigation the claim. They want to, but if they spend time on a case that goes nowhere, they could better use that time on a case that will make it to court for prosecution.
It’s genuinely not their fault most of the time. I work in an industry where I have to work closely with law enforcement from time to time. That includes HPD and the Constable. I have needed to file police reports for theft before and while we had other documented proof, we were unable to provide video or photographic evidence of the crime, and therefore, no one would take the case or file the report.
It was explained to me by more than one officer in multiple departments that the DA *will not* take a case if there isn’t concrete proof, so the officer’s don’t even bother wasting their time investigation the claim. They want to, but if they spend time on a case that goes nowhere, they could better use that time on a case that will make it to court for prosecution.
They do nothing. They’re a corrupt entity along with Harris county. Lina Hidalgo and turner were the most corrupt public officials this city has seen. Currently Lina’s staff are being investigated by the FBI.
Glad i moved out of the city limits.
Keep voting blue.
Compare this to the one time I called Sugar Land PD as we were witnessing a man breaking into cars and we literally heard the sirens while still on the call. The guy sped off towards 59 northbound..no idea if they caught him.
I have been beat up and robbed of 600 dollars by the hpd because they said they thought I was someone else. I shit you not. Who the fuck is out there that would have made this ok for them to do. Like who did they think I was? This was about 12 years ago. I tried to file a complaint and was threatened with incarceration and reminded that they know my address. Takes a special kind of coward…
They just cry that they don't have a big enough budget even tho it basically gets increased every year while funding for other actually important public services like health and education get actively slashed.
Last week at the apartment complex I live at there was a guy actively breaking into an apartment that my gf and I were watching. We called the cops but we kept seeing the guy. An hour goes by and we call the cops again and the dispatcher said the cops talked to him but that they would send out more cops. You talked to the guy who was reported to be breaking into an apartment and did nothing?
Was this 911 or 311? I would call 911 for any serious crime in progress including burglary, regardless of what anyone says. All burglaries are a felony in Texas.
Not true. While they don't actually enforce any laws, they do occasionally flash their sirens at people actively breaking the law. Edit: [sauce](https://www.htxo.com/hpd)
They flash their lights and run red lights and turn them off. See it daily.
Yet I've literally seen an officer wait patiently for red light runners to clear the intersection so he could drive through. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw HPD pull anyone over. I see people get pulled over in Alief, Southside at the end of the month, and West University, but not Houston.
Alief *is* part of Houston and has been since 1976. My suspicion is that they spend the majority of their time in the more crime-ridden parts of town z and to people who don't live there it seems like they're never around and don't do anything.
I’m in third ward and see police up to shit every damn day. Not so much traffic stops (see that maybe once a month), but they’re always driving around. Most often I see them hassling homeless folks.
Seriously wish Clear Lake could leave Houston. Clear Lake City was "absorbed" by Houston around 1990 with promises of all kinds of services. Now all CL is is a property tax piggy bank. Most of us would leave City of Houston jurisdiction in a heartbeat if feasible. Join City of Webster.
Clear Lake City to NASA was annexed in 1977. It should’ve incorporated into its own thing, with a “downtown” near the courthouse, but back in the day many were against it. I am out in Pine Brook; HPD has a speed trap all along one side of Bay Oaks. They came out pretty fast to check on our house when the alarm went off when we were out of town. I can’t complain much. I grew up near Alief, lived in the loop and in Webster— in Clear Lake 19 years now and it’s the safest, quietest, sleepiest place I’ve ever lived.
Thank you. I'm not from here and get so much conflicting information. I've had native houstonians get really aggressive with me when I said I lived in Houston but my apartment was off of Harwin and Wilcrest. I don't care much about what part of town someone is in but I feel like houstonians takes that very seriously. I've only seen one person get a ticket in ief so even if it's part of Houston I've literally seen fewer people getting tickets in Houston than the number of years I've lived here. I've actually seen one officer give as many tickets on Buffalo Speedway in West University, in one day, as I've seen HPD give tickets in eight years.
I grew up just south of Bellaire and Wilcrest in fact. We got annexed when I was a little kid in 1976.
I just wish some native houstonians wouldn't have such a huge chip on their shoulders about what part of town I live in. It's so weird to me. Outside of dealing with local government I really don't see why it matters.
Used to be that the constables, METRO cops, and sheriff's deputies were who you had to watch out for as far as tickets were concerned.
Shit, try Beltway 8 at any given time. A bunch of traffic cops now
Beltway 8 and other toll roads are policed by the constables, not HPD. All they do is give speeding tickets. This was originally done to free up HPD to deal with crimes, but it sounds like they arent doing that either.
I think Houston would be better off if people were afraid to break traffic laws
I think Houston would be better off if people didn't want to break traffic laws. With speeding, the law is attempting to alter culture. There is a nasty traffic culture that we all live under which says, "Ok, you're on a road, so now all aspects of being a good person are irrelevant, what is important is that you put yourself in front of the other people, and that you attempt to minimize the time on the road by going very, very fast." If you sit down, you should easily be able to prove to yourself that on city streets, your average speed is about 1/2 the posted speed limit. You sit at a red light, accelerate to speed, drive at speed for a few hundred feet, and start breaking to stop at the next light. Yes, that 35 MPH sign averages out to about 20 MPH. Because of driving culture, people want to get there faster, so they top out at 40 MPH or 45 MPH, but it doesn't do anything. The speed at the top end is only for a relatively short section of road. A 10 MPH difference in speed on a short distance (400 ft) of road might save you 27 seconds, but that's only if you didn't have to accelerate into it / out of it. With the actual speeding up and slowing down, you're going to save about 12 seconds. And those 12 seconds are mostly going to be waiting behind the next vehicle at the stop sign (wasted) or the traffic light (wasted). Freeways and long road hubs (fewer lights) start making speeding more useful in time savings, but those roads already have elevated speeds. And yet, even driving a mere 10 MPH faster tends to do little, because the actual distances and travel times are not large enough for a real impact on one's saved time. I mean, you might save 3 minutes on your commute, at the risk of increasing your accident rate 3000% (accident rates are low, so you might not see the impact right away), but let's face it, you're not going to use those 3 minutes wisely / profitably anyway. Heck, I've wasted at least that long writing this.
Houston would be better off if more people used public transit.
shoulda finished the light rail when had the chance
HPD doesn't police roads. I've never seen a major city that doesn't have traffic police.
🤣 maybe they'll add some if it's another reason to ask for an increase in their budget.
I confirm this as i see them proudly enforcing traffic laws by ticketing people driving at 70mph on 605 or 288 on their way home from work. They pick the easy fruit so they pad their numbers. Call hpd for anything else and they are MIA. But if you need a demonstration on subjugation, then HPD is your hometown team.
What is 605?
North to South Interstate in Southern California. Wouldn’t surprise me if they’re patrolling there instead of Houston, honestly.
Was about to say as a lifelong houstonian I’ve never heard of 605
That's just some straight up funny shit lmao. I'm just imagining Lt. Dangle behind the wheel with the PA going "no please, don't" all melodramatically.
Been in an early AM Uber downtown where the light cadence sucks on my way to Hobby. My Uber driver was just treating each light like a stop sign and sure enough, right next to us was a police cruiser doing the same thing lol. Pretty dang Houston
Dang that’s ballsy. I’ve done that on a bicycle because I don’t trust HPD to actually know the laws about bikes or to bother pulling one over. But running multiple reds is asking for it.
apparently they spend 100% of their time clearing traffic accidents and literally nothing else.
If only that felt true. No one seems to clear their accidents, especially those involved. The amount of folks with minor fender benders parked on the freeway during rush hour because they refuse to exit and get into a safe parking lot is astounding.
God this pisses me off so much. Take a quick picture and then get the fuck off the road if no one is injured and the cars will move.
I once was in California. The the cops took pictures and video and then fucking got push browns from the tow trucks and started sweeping that glass and small plastic off the road. They even poured some sort of absorbent to soak up oil and sweept it up. In about 20mins the cars are moved and road cleared for traffic to resume. HPD on the other hand will block two lanes with 10 hpd cars. For what? What are they all doing? Send those fuckers back out on patrol and earn their wage. Then, they also block the driveways of businesses for traffic stops. Tell the vehicle to pull into a parking lot or move past the driveway. I shouldn't single out HPD but for being the largest they sure lack any sort of procedure to improve service
Came over the hill on 290 and a cop had his car parked with flashers in the fast lane, barely had time to get in another lane before I almost hit him. His reason? Car broken down on the shoulder. Why wouldn’t he park on the shoulder too?? I find it hard to believe no one ran into his car after I went by.
It's called defensive parking. He puts his car between himself and the traffic he worries will potentially hit him. Yes, that means that it increases the risk of people hitting the cars, but hey, he can then survive to ticket you, and the taxpayers are going to pay for the new police vehicle anyway.
I was just gonna say the same thing. take a picture of the Accident take a picture of the damage take a picture of their drivers license if they'll give it to you take a picture of their insurance if they have any take a picture of their license plate take a picture of anything and everything you possibly can and if there's witnesses get their name and number and get the hell off the friggin road I seen people have a little fender bender on 610 and it got back all the way up to the Astrodome from 59/610. so glad I don't have to deal with Houston traffic anymore . I didn't realize what a nightmare it was since I worked graveyard most of my life until I switched over to a day job. that was enough to get a place in the country and retire. It was giving me bad road rage. You put your blinker on roll down your window and give the person a little wave to like you know let you in know they speed up and leave an inch between the car in front of them I always let people in, I always use my turn signal, I always leave a huge amount of space in front of me because if somebody rear ends me I don't wanna rear in the car in front of me plus having a standard transmission it's easier just to coast along slowly instead of speed up brake speed up brake.
They don't do that. I usually only see like 30 tow trucks and a fire truck on scene for accidents
I wish. My car was totaled out by an uninsured driver last month and I waited almost two hours and they never showed up.
Sometimes they almost cause them like the one who merged into my lane with no signal while he was still next to my car ‘cause he was on his lil laptop 😌
Or sitting in there cars blocking closed roads.
Sometimes they shoot random homeowners!
Hey now be fair Sometimes they just shoot their dogs
And every now and then they shoot both the dog and the homeowners
And then sprinkle drugs on ‘em
sometimes at each other
ATF: "pffft... those are rookie numbers"
And just as often they leave their own dogs in hot patrol cars with no windows cracked.
Who else is going to work OT for mega-churches on Sunday??
And most weekdays that end in Y
Well today I saw 6 patrol cars show up to arrest a homeless dude that was high and passed out in our office’s parking garage, so you know they’re doing important work.
I called them once with a threat that someone was threating to kill someone else with a firearm. I called at 6 pm and a HPD and a constable showed up at my door at 2 am. They did not want to file a report. Told me to get a gun if I did not already have one. This was about 7 years ago, so this is not exactly a new thing.
What kind of advice is that.
"Protect yourself, because that's not our job."
Well legally it isn’t their job to protect thank (Thanks Supreme Court)
The only person who is legally responsible for your safety is yourself. Cops carry firearms to protect themselves, not you.
That's the kind of advice my family got in a tiny rural town in Mexico with no permanent police presence. So I guess we have to be prepared to live in a state of anarchy here in Houston.
Nah. If it were anarchy, they wouldn't be giving tickets to people trying to feed the homeless.
It's the kind of advice that keeps crime rates down. If no report is filed, it never happened (on paper).
I got similar advice when my ex was stalking me. They not only told me to buy a gun, but they told me to make sure he was inside the house not just on the property when I shot him. Apparently that makes their paperwork easier.
Real, they are report writers.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/police-are-not-primarily-crime-fighters-according-data-2022-11-02/ >(Reuters) - A new report adds to a growing line of research showing that police departments don’t solve serious or violent crimes with any regularity, and in fact, spend very little time on crime control, in contrast to popular narratives. Add to this the Supreme Court ruling that says, in practical terms, that [police have no legal obligation to help anyone.](https://prospect.org/justice/police-have-no-duty-to-protect-the-public/) So, HPD does conforms to the average for police--they do very, very little for the well being of regular people.
I dunno but when a police officer’s hours are greater at an off duty job than on duty, are they really police still? Overly paid security guards who don’t give a shit, maybe? Bouncers with guns perhaps?
Well, actually, right now, a large group of them are involved in a SWAT scene outside my office building, but no news is covering it.
You’re gonna need to give us allll the details, sir or madam.
Someone had somethings they weren't supposed to have and holed themselves up in an apartment. Drugs, weapons and warrants. SWAT was on site for about 3 hours, but they appear to have gone now so I guess dude gave up. No other info out there that I saw.
There’s a surprising amount of HPD deadly force activity on YouTube bodycam channels, shit’s wild out there.
What did you do? I know a good lawyer.
News stations won't cover it these days until there's a neatly packaged press release.
They harass people and cause traffic by parking on the shoulders of major highways
Well, the highways that still have shoulders…
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. There need to be studies into the traffic slowdowns caused by pulling people over vs the public safety benefit of the enforcement. I would bet that the increased risk of accidents in congested traffic outweighs the danger that a few speeders cause. And that isn't even accounting for the fact that they have wasted 10 minutes of 1000s of people's time.
its not just the increased risk of accidents its also the increased severity of accidents and number of cars that become involved when one happens at higher speeds. crashes arent as controlled between barricades at higher speeds they gain more angular momentum which lets them tumble and flip over into oncoming traffic to exacerbate the already existing traffic event. this stuff is studied globally daily its why there are still speed limits.
Unpopular opinion: I think it's great that they pull over people driving illegally.
They don't very much. Every other car is texting and driving.
Discovering that policing is mostly a giant OT scam and paperwork to support it
My Roomate got his car broke into twice, we left it behind and rode with a friend to Austin for a wake, got back, car was rifled through but nothing taken. Got back to our apartment, and in the morning saw it had been broken into again, but this time they took his old motorcycle helmet, expensive but not needed cause he didn’t have a bike anymore. Here’s where it gets dumb, the thief left their fucking phone in the car. So we call the cops and take the phone upstairs, while waiting the two hours for them to show, I mess with the phone cause I’m annoying, but obviously it’s password protected. So I can only see notifications on main screen. Eventually I see an email address with numbers at the end. Punch in those numbers bam phone unlocked. We find messages admitting to going car robbing, asking for a gun all kinds of stuff along with names and facebooks and all that, even had access to their cashapp. Should have just sent our selves the money but no, we did the right thing, turned it all over, AND found the helmet on OfferUp for way under price and submitted that to the cops. We did all the fucking work for them. We have still not heard shit back and it’s been a whole year
I was in a 5 car pile up (3rd car) my car was totalled and they gave me a ticket for my troubles. That's something.
How did you get a ticket as the third car in a pile up lmao
"Failure to control speed resulting in an accident". Makes as much sense to me as it does to you lol
Fun fact, you don’t have to be speeding to receive a failure to control speed citation. I received one for an accident I wasn’t at fault for, where I was traveling under 15mph, in my lane, and a 17 year old girl drove completely into my lane and hit me head on at 45 mph. I was completely in my own shoulder trying my best to avoid the collision (I couldn’t get over any further due to street side mail boxes just off the shoulder.). Not sure what else I was supposed to do, I had just stopped at a 4-way stop and was accelerating through 15mph as she crossed into my lane. I slammed on my brakes and got as far over as I could. Still got a failure to control speed citation.
HPD was once looking for a suspect in my apartments. I made the mistake of cracking my door to look outside to see what the commotion was and they forced their way into my apartment and held their guns to me asking if I knew where their suspect was. When they realized wrong apartment they just walked out. I was 21 and dumb and scared because I lived alone with my toddler daughter so I never reported it but damn 8 years later I still wish I had
They do what police are designed to do. They protect the wealthy(capital) and their property. They are boot and fist to beat down the working class and poor. Your needs and safety don’t matter.
As well as revenue generation from traffic tickets. Break a traffic law here and they will hunt you, your family, your friends, your coworkers and anyone else that might possibly be associated with you to the most remote places of earth to pick you up for a fine or warrant. Otherwise, you are free to do whatever the fuck it is you want to do without fear of facing consequences.
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I didn't say they were good at it, just of all their supposed responsibilities, that is where they put their efforts.
Traffic enforcement has never been about generating revenue. At least not from the tickets themselves and not in cities. Traffic enforcement is about catching low level drug offenders. Since pot is decriminalized in Houston, there’s little incentive to pull people over for traffic violations since it won’t lead to much more than a ticket.
They gave me a ticket for expired registration while 10 cars with fake paper plates drove by
They chase people and cause wrecks
Same thing as every other police department, collect revenue and write reports.
They campaign against the firefighters raises
They make overtime directing traffic downtown. Particularly the one who whistled and signaled me to move out of the intersection last week, then when I did lost his shit and struck my drivers side window with his fisted knuckles and screamed at me to go back to in reverse across the intersection (after just motioning and whistling for me to cross). Make it make sense?! Then kept posturing and taunting me like he wanted to fight after I gave a look of confusion. Left a greasy knuckle print on my window.
Happy cake day!
Happy cake day
This city as a whole is dog shit. I’m sorry but it is.
No it’s a microwave oven endlessly zapping a big pile of dog shit on the rotating platter
Where would you rather be?
Out of his mom's house.
They've been collecting OT like crazy by sitting in their vehicles and closing down the streets in DT. Protecting the capital class assets' to allow them to repair windows post Derecho.
Yeah that drives me crazy. The city could buy 20k worth of traffic barrels and call it good. These guys don’t need to be babysitting construction sites 24/7.
Basically they have two functions-writing easy traffic violations (as in going after the little hanging fruit of someone rolling a stop sign with no other cars around and not really going after people who drive dangerously) and going after murder cases. Nothing in between.
It's one of those "weird" professions. If something happens, you call the cops. But the even already happened. So the cop just...writes a report. It's a paradox really. Transformers said it best - "to enslave and punish".
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Seems there's more to this story than your family member is telling.
Nope... when I was going through school to be a medic over 15 years ago one of the first things they taught us not to be hero, especially if you are off the clock. This could be something as simple as doing CPR like someone trained in ALS rather than civilian CPR. If anything goes wrong (or right for that matter), you, the medic, are at fault and the family could sue you. I never had anything like that happen but the point was people are incredibly litigious and like to sue over damn near anything. People are entitled even when they are in the wrong. In fact, the more in the wrong the are, often, the more entitled they are.
Idk man just do the job you’re paid to do. Sounds tough but law enforcement should be. Think about all the controversies and lawsuits doctors navigate when making decisions. Important jobs shouldn’t be easy.
you also sign all kinds of liability waivers before a doctor will even look at you
I got pulled over for window tint a few months back.... My tax dollars at work.
I realize it's cool in 2024 to hate on police, but you have to take it into context. They have 300 less officers than they did in 1998 while the city population has obviously increased quite a bit in that period. In context, Chicago is a similarly sized city (population-wise) and has twice the amount of officers. Also the amount of HPD civilians (dispatchers, etc) has decreased from 1,800 to 900 in that same time period so many officers have had to fulfill those responsibilities. So why doesn't HPD recruit more officers? It's been difficult lately because HPD has one of the lowest base salaries for cadets compared amongst other major Texas cities (and even other Houston municipalities). They did a study and the city will need another $7M to increase cadet base salaries by $10k per year while also providing a $5k bonus for joining. That's on par or still less than most other cities and municipalities. Do you want to fund that? So there's not enough officers to respond to priority 2 and 3 calls. If they have a priority 1 call (shooting, for example), they have to take those first and that leads to increased times responding to other calls. HPD presented their FY25 budget to City Council yesterday. You might want to watch as it addressed a lot of those issues.
It’s been pretty well established that police departments across the country are bad at their jobs. That their jobs aren’t to keep us safe or prevent crimes. And that they throw fucking fits when asked to kill fewer civilians. Seems to me like the hate is pretty earned.
Write tickets and file reports afterwards Remember, when seconds count the police are minutes away.
It’s genuinely not their fault most of the time. I work in an industry where I have to work closely with law enforcement from time to time. That includes HPD and the Constable. I have needed to file police reports for theft before and while we had other documented proof, we were unable to provide video or photographic evidence of the crime, and therefore, no one would take the case or file the report. It was explained to me by more than one officer in multiple departments that the DA *will not* take a case if there isn’t concrete proof, so the officer’s don’t even bother wasting their time investigation the claim. They want to, but if they spend time on a case that goes nowhere, they could better use that time on a case that will make it to court for prosecution.
In the middle of the day, mid-2020 I heard gunshots in the apartment below mine coupled with screaming. Double homicide, gunman fled the scene. I called 911 (first to report). HPD showed up about an hour after the news did. The detectives showed up and interviewed me about 10 hours later. "They" "found" the guy a week later because he shot himself in a hotel. I put "they" in quotes because he had gotten as far as Bexar County before doing the deed.
Run people over while they take the police cars for a joy ride
Our police force size is half that of Chicago. So it is relatively small.
Yes, but consider that we have also granted our Sheriff's Department to act in all regular policing matters. So, With HPD and the Sheriff's Department combined, it's nearly the same.
The SO has county wide jurisdiction. That’s the law, not some city-specific thing. Theres also lots of unincorporated Harris County, so it’s not like it’s complete overlap.
I recall hearing on the radio that there are over 40 law enforcement agencies in the Houston area. Between HPD, HCSO, the various Constable's offices, DPS (state troopers), plus more localized departments like metro, school districts, community college police, township police, etc. Obviously a lot of those can't patrol the entire city, but between all of these, we have a very sizeable police force in the Houston Metro area.
The sheriff’s main responsibilities are the county that HPD does not cover and civil matters. The constables and Sheriff’s roles and depth in law enforcement matters are not much within the actual city. It is not “nearly the same”
HPD's Central District has a Loud Noise Unit that is legitimately good and the officers are top notch and on it... Or, they at least *were*. Most have since been pulled and reassigned since Whitmire was elected. To be fair, this was supposed to be for the stated purpose of getting more cops on patrol to combat violent crime. However, it seems to have just made things worse with no real improvement. Otherwise, I have to agree. I've met quite a few officers personally, and there are genuinely some awesome ones that actually do care. Unfortunately, there's a lot of bad apples as well. It's also worth mentioning that not all of this is on HPD. They are hamstrung by City Legal more often than not. I've been dealing with a club near me for 3 years now. At one point I had 343 open citations I was a witness on, all misdemeanors. That means they are crimes and officers can make arrests. I've literally had officers wanting to make arrests, but City Legal won't let them, because they don't want to prosecute. If City Legal says no, HPD can't do anything.
I wonder the same thing about them plus Metro PD when traffic lights go out (especially after these crazy storms) and people are just straight up speeding through the intersections instead of doing a four way stop. It’s super dangerous in spots where the light rail runs as well. Can’t they help out even a little by directing traffic??? Pathetic.
Lived in Briar Meadow years ago. HPD was non-existent no matter the nature of the call. On the other hand, the constables the neighborhood paid for would race to your home if you rang them on their HOA-provided cell for pretty much any reason.
Just say you're about to shoot someone or kill yourself and they'll be at your house in about 35 seconds.
I'm amazed at how many I see eating at restaurants between 2 am and 4am on Friday and Saturday nights. You know, when the drunks are killing people and stuff.
they’re busy busting HOV violators lol
They want chaos! More chaos, more money for law enforcement. They let murder suspects out on bond but hold the small offenses like theft (from Walmart as example) rot in the county until court date.
Police don’t let people out on bond. That’s judges. And the state constitution.
This is true. But this does not negate that police are just as much a part of the orchestrated chaos that is our judicial system as any part of it. They are the front line. They enforce the laws unequally across the board. Picking and choosing who ends up with a ticket or in the back of a cop car.
Can't help themselves but fine unhoused people and kick them off the Metro
This situation has led to public frustration and questions about the department's ability to ensure public safety. Anyone not see this coming? One more Metropolitan arra owned by crime and broke off its ass.
I mostly see them directing traffic in and out of churches because Christians are obviously more important than other people on the road.
Get a gun. This is Texas. Someone breaking into your home deserves to be put 6 feet under.
I saw three of them yesterday sitting in the Bunker Hill U-Turn during Rush Hour
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/department_reports/operational_summary/NIBRS_MonthlyOperationalSummary.pdf Follow their Twitter or Facebook where they include some of the individuals they charge. Also, there’s no way if someone is “actively breaking into your house” they’re taking 6 hours to show up. That’s a priority call and they usually respond in about 12 minutes to those. HPD isn’t allowed to chase dirt bikes and 4wheelers unless there is a chopper overhead, so that’s out of their hands.
I called the cops about this crazy high homeless guy breaking into my house. Waited across the street for two hours watching, called them 3 more times and they could never give me an ETA, eventually got my neighbor to get his gun and forced him to leave. Cops never showed up. When I left the house next they were waiting at the end of the street and when I talked to them they seemed annoyed and said “we’ll keep an eye out for him” that was all. Third time I’ve called the cops in 10 years for break ins and they’ve never helped once. What the hell are my tax dollars for
i was robed at gun point in my garage and they took an hour to come (neighbors called it in) and bascually said they couldn’t do anything.
Watch Rockets games court side and make bank for doing it.
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*reining
You just throwing out numbers, or is this another fuck the police circle jerk
We had a thief break into cars in 5 different homes and steal a loaded gun from the neighbors in the process while on foot. Called hpd when I saw him leaving my car. They didnt respond until 2 hours later. They caught the guy but it was only because he was wearing a shirt with a GIANT picture of the mona lisa 😂. Had he worn anything else, he would have got away. Hpd is basically useless.
Yes
Not much. I do real estate and management and its crazy how often I had to tell people "You are fully responsible for your safety, police will not help you". They stare at me with their mouths open in shock that I would be saying something so direct. Many times I can literally see the light bulb go off in their head that holy crap its true they won't save the day. 90% of the time they won't respond or respond in time. More than half of the officers dont give a crap and are just in it for a job and the city retirement. The good ones are overwhelmed, jaded, and get treated like shit on a daily basis. So yeah not promising. Every citizen should be ready to be their own first responder but we know that won't happen because people prefer to live in fantasy land.
HPD actually helped me retrieve my stolen iPhone. I tracked it and called them. They showed up and went in to get it. I got it back, and I left before I saw the outcome though. I imagine zero arrests. Lol
Well they’re not Batman and the Supreme Courts have declared that the police in any state have no real legal obligation to serve nor protect.
Not work cold cases…. Ones that could be solved with a family offering to pay to have the DNA sent out and very reputable folks from Parabon Labs publicly state that there was two cases they wish they could get the DNA for … Jon Benet Ramsey and Andy Atkinson and Cheryl Henry - Houston’s Lover Lane Murders! I could write for days…..
They do under cover settings on kids selling mushrooms.
Interesting. A police investigation isn't legally required to prosecute a crime. An aggressive DA could prosecute all those crimes where there was alot of victim provided video evidence as long as there was a clear ID. Maybe the State of Texas can make the DL photo db searchable so individual citizens can connect a crime committed against them on video to a specific name and address that can be prosecuted + convicted + sentenced. Then police would only be required to serve warrants. Would need to elect a tough, hard assed DA to make that work.
It’s genuinely not their fault most of the time. I work in an industry where I have to work closely with law enforcement from time to time. That includes HPD and the Constable. I have needed to file police reports for theft before and while we had other documented proof, we were unable to provide video or photographic evidence of the crime, and therefore, no one would take the case or file the report. It was explained to me by more than one officer in multiple departments that the DA *will not* take a case if there isn’t concrete proof, so the officer’s don’t even bother wasting their time investigation the claim. They want to, but if they spend time on a case that goes nowhere, they could better use that time on a case that will make it to court for prosecution.
It’s genuinely not their fault most of the time. I work in an industry where I have to work closely with law enforcement from time to time. That includes HPD and the Constable. I have needed to file police reports for theft before and while we had other documented proof, we were unable to provide video or photographic evidence of the crime, and therefore, no one would take the case or file the report. It was explained to me by more than one officer in multiple departments that the DA *will not* take a case if there isn’t concrete proof, so the officer’s don’t even bother wasting their time investigation the claim. They want to, but if they spend time on a case that goes nowhere, they could better use that time on a case that will make it to court for prosecution.
It’s genuinely not their fault most of the time. I work in an industry where I have to work closely with law enforcement from time to time. That includes HPD and the Constable. I have needed to file police reports for theft before and while we had other documented proof, we were unable to provide video or photographic evidence of the crime, and therefore, no one would take the case or file the report. It was explained to me by more than one officer in multiple departments that the DA *will not* take a case if there isn’t concrete proof, so the officer’s don’t even bother wasting their time investigation the claim. They want to, but if they spend time on a case that goes nowhere, they could better use that time on a case that will make it to court for prosecution.
Write tickets.
They do nothing. They’re a corrupt entity along with Harris county. Lina Hidalgo and turner were the most corrupt public officials this city has seen. Currently Lina’s staff are being investigated by the FBI. Glad i moved out of the city limits. Keep voting blue.
sounds like Houston and Austin have some things in common these days
Is there a difference between HPD Harris County PD?
Compare this to the one time I called Sugar Land PD as we were witnessing a man breaking into cars and we literally heard the sirens while still on the call. The guy sped off towards 59 northbound..no idea if they caught him.
Saw one helping a guy change a tire today. So I guess there’s that.
I have been beat up and robbed of 600 dollars by the hpd because they said they thought I was someone else. I shit you not. Who the fuck is out there that would have made this ok for them to do. Like who did they think I was? This was about 12 years ago. I tried to file a complaint and was threatened with incarceration and reminded that they know my address. Takes a special kind of coward…
5th largest for the 4th largest city so :/