The courts have certainly been faced with unique challenges over the last few years, with the pandemic being the most notable. And the blame for this backlog can be laid at the feet of many of our elected officials, including the Texas Legislature for not authorizing more courts for Harris County. But there is little evidence of any concerted effort by the current Harris County bench or Harris County Commissioners’ Court to resolve this backlog.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo recently claimed that violent crime has slightly declined so far in 2022. While there is some indication in the year-to-date preliminary reports from law enforcement agencies that may be case, some of those reports, including the one from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, are several months behind. That delay alone may account for the small decline cited by Judge Hidalgo. Records from the Harris County Medical Examiner show no decrease in the number of homicides it has investigated so far in 2022 compared to the same time last year.
Also, HPD year-to-date reports show another dramatic increase so far this year in some property crimes, especially theft from a motor vehicle (+15%), theft of vehicle parts (+42%) and theft of a motor vehicle (+10%). According to HPD’s report, there are nearly 100 car break-ins every day in Houston.
Even if there has been a small decrease in 2022, the current crime levels are still dramatically higher than when this County administration took over in 2019. Alarmingly, the Commissioners' Court proposed budget for next year, which includes very minimal increases in law enforcement funding, indicates no sense of urgency in dealing with the problem.
Candidly, there is no evidence that our current crime problem has been solved, or even that we have made significant progress toward getting it under control.
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