Two years ago, John Whitmire and his MAGA friends were all blaming the judges for the high crime rate.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire has criticized certain judges for enabling crime by setting low bonds for dangerous offenders, arguing they hide behind “antiquated” 1836 constitutional language. He is actively pushing for judicial reforms (e.g., SJR 5) to ensure violent offenders are held accountable, aiming to strengthen public safety
This year, John Whitmire claims crime is down and is taking credit for it. If the reason crime was up before was the judges, then it must be the judges who have lowered crime.
Whitmire stood by his new Police Chief Noe Diaz, pleading for Houstonians to give him a chance. Diaz had just taken over a beleaguered Houston Police Department reeling from a scandal in which tens of thousands of criminal cases were improperly suspended. Whitmire told reporters that his first year as mayor should be judged based on when Diaz took over in August 2024.
“Diaz is, quite frankly, kicking ass,” Whitmire said.
While we’re still waiting on the full complement of 2025 data, the early returns show that perhaps Diaz is beginning to make good on Whitmire’s boast.
According to HPD, homicides in 2025 were down by roughly 16% from the previous year.
This year, John Whitmire claims that crime is down across the board.
HPD has made full crime data available – rapes and aggravated assaults were each down by 17.4% and human trafficking decreased by nearly 40%. Property crimes such as robbery and burglary saw 22.5% and 18% decreases respectively.
But maybe the data is being manipulated? John Whitmire made such a claim when he wasn’t the mayor.
When Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s Independent Review Panel gets underway sometime next week, one question they are expected to answer is if crime rate numbers, shown to be improving over the years, were affected by the lack of personnel code.
The code was used to suspend over 264,000 cases, including sexual assault cases and family violence cases.
Whitmire brought the issue up this week: “I believe it has manipulated our crime rate. I believe the credibility of the City of Houston about crime was going in the right direction… …it’s been revealed that was a spin. Because the credibility of the data collected by HPD and released to the public, for at least the last eight years is flawed and been misrepresented of the true facts.”
Unfortunately, Mayor Whitmire has already shown he is capable of telling lies and not telling the truth. So, can we trust him on the crime data?