Houston crime increase not affecting county
Published January 22, 2007
PEARLAND — As the northern portion of Brazoria County has experienced a business and population boom in recent years, crime has gone up, too.
“That just comes along with growth,” said Roy Castillo, public information officer for the Pearland Police Department. “There’s more customers out there to choose from.”
But unlike officials in Harris County, who believe the influx of Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans in August and September 2005 have boosted crime rates in greater Houston, law enforcement officers in northern Brazoria County said their crime rates have been stable.
Some of the crimes that have increased in recent years are burglaries, but that is not because of Katrina evacuees, said Brazoria County Sheriff Charles Wagner.
“Our increases are directly attributable to the population increase,” he said. “Not only has the population grown, but business has grown.”
In 2006, burglaries in unincorporated parts of the county actually have decreased substantially, according to numbers provided by the sheriff’s office. Deputies received 487 burglary reports in 2006, compared to the 773 they received in 2005.
Police officers in Pearland city limits tell a different story.
Crime statistics for the city of Pearland in 2006 were not available. The city did see a significant increase in burglaries with 363 reported in 2005, a third more than the 228 reported in 2004, according to statistics from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
To help combat a jump in burglaries brought on by the increase in new stores to the Pearland area, the police department decided to take a proactive approach.
Last month, the police department created a street crimes unit. The division is staffed by four officers who work undercover to help prevent burglaries.
“This is strictly a proactive unit,” Castillo said. “They are not out there to respond to calls.”
The unit was created because of increasing burglary rates brought on by the new retailers springing up on the west side of the city, he said.
“Arrests have been up for this quarter compared to this time last year,” Castillo said. “Recently we’ve been working on hand-to-hand narcotics transactions.”
When asked to describe how the unit works for the police department, Castillo compared it to an intelligence unit for the patrol officers.
“They go out in regular clothes and regular vehicles,” he said. “They observe this behavior beforehand.”
Alvin, which sits in the northern part of the county just southeast of Pearland, has seen a substantial drop in the number of confirmed thefts in the city.
In 2006, the police department reported 432 confirmed thefts, compared to 612 in 2005. The drop in burglaries has been due to increasing overtime by patrol officers in the department, providing more coverage on the streets, Alvin Police Chief Mike Merkel said.
“It’s important for us to not just be report-takers,” he said.
Though it might sound simple, Merkel said the best way to combat crimes such as burglary or robbery is to catch those who do it, even when the crime is happening in Brazoria County but might be based elsewhere.
When a couple was robbing Subways and Pizza Huts all over the northern Galveston-Brazoria county line, investigators from Alvin were able to solve the case even though most of the robberies took place outside of Alvin.
“They use the bigger city as the base of their operations,” he said.
If criminals feel they have a bigger chance of being caught in a smaller city, they are not likely to target it in the future, he said.
Crime has become more transient in Brazoria County in recent years. In 2006, Gov. Rick Perry approved a $10 million grant to create a communications center in Houston to be used by all law enforcement officials in the region, including Brazoria County.
“We have a very mobile criminal element in and out of Brazoria County,” Wagner said. “They know the areas very well.”
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Crime Statistics
Alvin Police Department
2006
Burglaries: 182
Assaults: 272
Rapes: 6
Thefts: 432
2005
Burglaries: 191
Assaults: 264
Rapes: 2
Thefts: 612
Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office
2006
Burglaries: 30
Felony assaults: 60
Homicides: 0
Burglaries: 487
2005
Burglaries: 20
Felony assaults: 38
Homicides: 5
Burglaries: 773
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