In November, I asked the Houston Police Department for 10 years of clearance rates and annual reports for the six investigative divisions and its trucking enforcement unit. Today, the department sent me this invoice for the information:
And y'all, they want 260 business days to comply with the request.
The divisions were: Burglary and Theft, Robbery, Major Assaults & Family Violence, Juvenile, Special Victims, Homicide
Part of the reason the estimate is so high is because apparently the department doesn't have this information readily available.
.
... How is that possible?
Update: @ArtAcevedo and I discussed this and I’ll report back tomorrow as events warrant
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When federal agents interviewed HPD Ofc. Tam Pham, they found photos of the officer in the U.S. Capitol in his phone's "deleted images" folder. From new court docs filed in federal court in DC:
BREAKING: Former HPD Ofc. Tam Pham entered U.S. Capitol with pro-Trump mob, then lied to federal investigators about the incident -- according to new charging documents filed in DC federal court Tuesday houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Pham is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violence entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. In this case, the charges appear to carry a penalty of up to 18 months combined.
Prosecutors: A former HPD captain faces assault charges after accosting an A/C repairman at gunpoint who he believed was involved in a ballot fraud scheme houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
The former captain, Mark Aguirre, was fired from HPD in 2003 for his role in the Kmart mass arrests of 270 people during an operation meant to crack down on illegal street-racing and which turned into a complete debacle.
The Kmart scandal led to lawsuits and the suspension of 13 police supervisors, as well as perjury charges against then-chief C.O. Bradford. (I mean, truly, the thing was an incredible mess.)
Here's a story @SchwartzChron wrote about the whole thing! chron.com/news/houston-t…
In Surfside, high tide sent water 18 inches above a some roads. It’s dropped one but left debris all over the place.
And yes that’s a porta-John in the road.
Tidal surge inundated Surfside shores, still under water. Alas, I’m not able to get over there. (Cheers to Surfside PD Chief Gary Phillips for schlepping me all over town)
Activists have urged for a strong ordinance that gives officers little discretion over whether they can make arrests with low-level offenses, instead requiring them to issue citations.
Police say that inappropriately hamstrings them. ...
Before I moved to Texas, I worked at the Gazette, a small, tight-knit weekly newspaper in suburban Maryland. Jeremy Arias was the cops reporter, a crusty, profane, no-nonsense reporter with an unforgettable sense of humor. He died this week, at 34.
He was a yeoman reporter who really took immersive journalism to a new level. He wrote a whole series about cadets training to become cops -- and went through the academy with them and let them tase him. bit.ly/3jFUvDT
His death, after a sudden illness over the past few days, left his colleagues (past and present) stunned.
Forgive my self-indulgent thread, but if you have a moment, perhaps head over to the @frednewspost, which is posting many of his fine stories.