I guess Whitmire wants us to believe that the only person telling the truth is the politician?
Violent crime increased by nearly 5% in Houston in 2024, Mayor John Whitmire’s first year in office, an uptick that brings to an end a three-year decline in violent crime in Houston and counters a nationwide decline in those types of crime.
Whitmire, who campaigned significantly on improving public safety, said overall 2024 crime statistics don’t tell the full picture of his time as mayor. He said he was confident in his new Police Chief Noe Diaz’s tenure, that the city was occupied with a scandal over 264,000 suspended cases during the first part of the year, and that he expects to see more positive gains in 2025.
“I urge you to be fair and judge us by the decisions that we’ve made,” Whitmire said. “Diaz is, quite frankly, kicking ass.”
There are fewer property crimes being reported because people know that nothing happens when you report property crimes.
For example, this past year, a resident whose vehicle was burglarized came out and yelled at the thieves. They responded to him by shooting at him. I asked him if he had reported it to the police, and he shrugged his shoulders and said that all that would happen would be that I would lose a day of work waiting for them.
I can see why reports of property crimes have gone down; people don’t expect anything to happen. I would only report such crimes if my insurance required it. Well, I would, but all I would expect is frustration.
As to more police officers on the street, after millions of dollars spent, we have at most 80 more police officers on the street, that is assuming that Whitmire is telling the truth about the 60 officers assigned to patrol from desk duty.