johnsmith
01-15-2007, 10:16 AM
Ken Rodriguez: Hurricane Katrina evacuees were the X factor in very deadly 2006
Web Posted: 01/13/2007 10:53 PM CST
San Antonio Express-News
It was a strange year for murder in Texas.
Homicides in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin plunged to levels not seen since the 1960s.
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There were rising body counts in Houston (up 13.5 percent), San Antonio (32 percent) and Corpus Christi (188 percent ).
Guess which police departments issued the most press releases?
Given the recent numbers in U.S. News & World Report — homicides are up 6 percent overall in the 20 largest U.S. cities — Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin should feel good.
Corpus? Police there have an explanation for the off-the-chart jump in murders: 2005.
Authorities say that year was an anomaly. Only nine homicides were recorded. The 26 bodies that turned up last year approximated the pre-2005 average.
Then there was Houston. Mayor Bill White attributed part of the spike in slayings to hurricane evacuees. "We did have a surge in population from a city (New Orleans) where the homicide rate is eight times the national average," White told the Houston Chronicle.
Houston police tracked Katrina-related crime. San Antonio police did not. If SAPD had, it might better understand the 119 murders of 2006, the most in 11 years.
One veteran officer offers a blunt view of the failure to track evacuee-related murders.
"I think we didn't want to know," the officer says. "It was going to become a race issue. We didn't want to get involved in those things."
Race did not scare Houston. Police not only connected rising crime to evacuees, the mayor used the link to secure an $18 million Department of Justice grant.
In San Antonio, police brass dismissed the evacuee crime link. But cops on the street who knew better contradicted them: People from over there brought crime over here, no doubt about it.
How much of that crime turned deadly is unclear. The district attorney's office documented two murders and more than 100 other Katrina-related crimes, but couldn't get a complete accounting.
For unstated reasons, police refused to ask criminal suspects a basic question: Are you an evacuee?
In one case, SAPD discovered the Louisiana roots of one murder suspect by accident. Police noticed that Melvin Davis, accused of killing another evacuee in February, listed a New Orleans address on his Texas driver's license.
Anecdotally, police know of four other homicides connected to Katrina.
In one case, an evacuee from Mississippi was strangled. In three others, evacuee suspects remain at large.
"I'm sure Katrina contributed somewhat to the murder rate," one officer says. "But I'm more concerned about domestic violence murder. That's where the spike was."
What the officer doesn't know is how many domestic murders involved evacuees.
No one tracked them, and that's too bad. Domestic slayings surged in one year from nine to 25. Acquaintance murder also soared, from 13 to 31. We'll never know the precise impact evacuees had on '06 homicide developments.
Why is this important?
Houston police used Katrina crime data to shape crime-fighting strategy. Officers targeted hot areas and saw a significant reduction in murders from October through December.
SAPD could learn a lesson from Houston but won't. No one appears to be tracking Katrina crime in '07. It's as if it doesn't exist.
Web Posted: 01/13/2007 10:53 PM CST
San Antonio Express-News
It was a strange year for murder in Texas.
Homicides in Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin plunged to levels not seen since the 1960s.
advertisement
There were rising body counts in Houston (up 13.5 percent), San Antonio (32 percent) and Corpus Christi (188 percent ).
Guess which police departments issued the most press releases?
Given the recent numbers in U.S. News & World Report — homicides are up 6 percent overall in the 20 largest U.S. cities — Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin should feel good.
Corpus? Police there have an explanation for the off-the-chart jump in murders: 2005.
Authorities say that year was an anomaly. Only nine homicides were recorded. The 26 bodies that turned up last year approximated the pre-2005 average.
Then there was Houston. Mayor Bill White attributed part of the spike in slayings to hurricane evacuees. "We did have a surge in population from a city (New Orleans) where the homicide rate is eight times the national average," White told the Houston Chronicle.
Houston police tracked Katrina-related crime. San Antonio police did not. If SAPD had, it might better understand the 119 murders of 2006, the most in 11 years.
One veteran officer offers a blunt view of the failure to track evacuee-related murders.
"I think we didn't want to know," the officer says. "It was going to become a race issue. We didn't want to get involved in those things."
Race did not scare Houston. Police not only connected rising crime to evacuees, the mayor used the link to secure an $18 million Department of Justice grant.
In San Antonio, police brass dismissed the evacuee crime link. But cops on the street who knew better contradicted them: People from over there brought crime over here, no doubt about it.
How much of that crime turned deadly is unclear. The district attorney's office documented two murders and more than 100 other Katrina-related crimes, but couldn't get a complete accounting.
For unstated reasons, police refused to ask criminal suspects a basic question: Are you an evacuee?
In one case, SAPD discovered the Louisiana roots of one murder suspect by accident. Police noticed that Melvin Davis, accused of killing another evacuee in February, listed a New Orleans address on his Texas driver's license.
Anecdotally, police know of four other homicides connected to Katrina.
In one case, an evacuee from Mississippi was strangled. In three others, evacuee suspects remain at large.
"I'm sure Katrina contributed somewhat to the murder rate," one officer says. "But I'm more concerned about domestic violence murder. That's where the spike was."
What the officer doesn't know is how many domestic murders involved evacuees.
No one tracked them, and that's too bad. Domestic slayings surged in one year from nine to 25. Acquaintance murder also soared, from 13 to 31. We'll never know the precise impact evacuees had on '06 homicide developments.
Why is this important?
Houston police used Katrina crime data to shape crime-fighting strategy. Officers targeted hot areas and saw a significant reduction in murders from October through December.
SAPD could learn a lesson from Houston but won't. No one appears to be tracking Katrina crime in '07. It's as if it doesn't exist.