Friends,
Today at Council, I spoke about the crime and public safety issues in our city. Subsequently, the Mayor recently released his 44 million dollar plan to combat crime and invest in making communities safer. We will provide that entire plan in electronic form in next week’s Pollard Press. Below are my remarks:
“Everyone up here believes that crime and public safety must be our top priority. We also know that the city alone cannot single handedly solve the crime issue, however, the city must take the lead on plans to solve the crime issue. Mayor, I am looking forward to joining you today to roll out your plan.
“It is going to take a holistic and comprehensive plan involving local, state, and federal agencies collectively working together on a singular objective. Together, we must identify the most problematic offenses and together come up with a way to combat.
“This crime wave should not be uncontrollable, we just have to commit to it every single day as our top priority. We know that crimes are committed by criminals, and the biggest deterrent we have to stop criminals from committing illegal acts is the threat of having to go to jail if caught. But if the consequence of getting caught and going to jail is no longer a threat, because you can commit a crime and be right back on the streets in a couple days, we’ve dramatically weakened our biggest deterrent. Criminals must fear the reality of going to jail for breaking the law.
“Anything contrary to taking away our biggest deterrent is counterproductive to lowering the crime rate. As the city, we need to ensure our police officers have as much resources and support as we can reasonably provide. The officers are our front line and in order for them to be effective, their legitimate efforts must be upheld by the court system.
“Right now our criminal court and judicial system is failing us. One, because too often we have violent offenders getting low amount bonds, and two, the dockets are moving too slow. The county needs to allocate more money to the DA’s office to hire more prosecutors and the judges, who are elected, must take the initiative to speed up their dockets and try cases even if working beyond normal hours to clear the backlogs. I urge everyone to do your research and be an informed voter as you cast your ballots in the upcoming judicial races with early voting starting in two weeks and Election Day on March 1st.
“In a criminal case, the prosecution either has the evidence to present a case or not. We can’t wait forever for lab results and forensics to be tested and finalized. I’ve allocated $50,000 dollars to the Houston Forensic Science Center to aid their crime scene investigators and we all must commit resources to them so we can move cases quicker. Moreover, I believe there are about 7,000 inmates in county jail and 4,500 of them are violent offenders. I’ve been told we don’t have adequate capacity in our jails, so we need to consider if those in jail on nonviolent offenses need actually be there or can we release them on monitors and make sure we have the capacity to jail all the violent offenders that we will catch.
“Finally, we also must truly look at what is the root cause of crime. Crimes are usually committed by people who have no discipline, no respect for authority or persons, who are uneducated, and lack employment opportunities…many times due to systematic obstacles, but nonetheless, we must address. If we are to be tough on crime, which I am, we also must be as diligent in helping uplift people from communities who need our guidance and support. You can’t expect a person to turn from a life of crime unless we give them an attractive alternative.
“So ultimately, we just come up with a holistic approach and do it. No more talking we must act and act now. And again Mayor, I am excited to hear your plan. Houston needs to show the country how it is done. And send a message that if you commit crimes here you will be prosecuted to fullest extent of the law.
Mayor, I offer myself to help lead this effort with your administration in any way you best see fit. So I ask that you use me. Thank you.”
Together we will!
Edward Pollard
