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Texas Town Sees 61% Drop in Crime After Kicking Out Cops
Sputnik ^ | 03.03.2015 | N/A

Posted on 03/03/2015 4:10:41 AM PST by Freeport

Rather than degenerate into a lawless land where criminals rule the streets, a Texas town that fired its entire police department has seen a 61% decrease is crime.

In 2012, Sharpstown, a community of 66,000 located just southwest of Houston, declined to renew its contract with the constable’s office, essentially dismissing its cops.

Instead, the Sharpstown Civic Association hired SEAL Security Solutions, a private firm, to patrol their streets.

“Since we’ve been in there, an independent crime study that they’ve had done [indicates] we’ve reduced the crime by 61% in just 20 months," James Alexander, Director of Operations for SEAL, told guns.com

The private security firm places its officers on continuous patrol in their assigned neighborhoods, as opposed to the strategy of intermittent presence that the constable embraced.

“On a constable patrol contract, it’s either a 70/30 or an 80/20,” Alexander said. “Meaning they say they patrol your community 70 percent of the time, [while] 30 percent of the time they use for running calls out of your area or writing reports.”

SEAL also relies heavily on crime statistics when it designs its patrol efforts.

“The second thing that drastically reduces the crime is that we do directed patrols, meaning we don’t just put an officer out there and say ‘here, go patrol,’” he said. “We look at recent crime stats, and we work off of those crime stats. So if we have hotspots in those areas say for that month, we focus and concentrate our efforts around those hotspots.”

(Excerpt) Read more at sputniknews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: city; donutwatch; privatesecurity
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To: Freeport
What say you? I'm of two minds: If it works, use it. But this is an accountable police chief issue I think.

Don't fret. ObamaLaw with be here soon so we'll have a national standard for all this.

21 posted on 03/03/2015 4:44:10 AM PST by Poison Pill
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To: ThePatriotsFlag

Public cops have quotas to fill. They must generate a certain amount of revenue per day. Thus they create criminals to meet quotas.


22 posted on 03/03/2015 4:47:29 AM PST by PilotDave (No, really, you just can't make this stuff up!!!)
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To: Freeport

The problem is that most police chiefs are liberals. Thus they have their hands tied by political correctness and other stupid liberal ideas. This is much the same problem that we have with public schools. The “smart people” come up with a “new” idea, so it must be better than the old ways that have been working for hundreds of years. To make matters worse, since they are liberals they can’t understand that their idea didn’t work so they feel they just need to do more of it, in other words they double down. This creates a downward spiral.


23 posted on 03/03/2015 4:49:43 AM PST by logic101.net (If libs believe in Darwin and natural selection why do they get hacked off when it happens?)
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To: yldstrk

I’d pay good money to listen in on the 911 calls and responses there now.
“What? You want us to come and do what? Oh, sorry, that would be...racist.”


24 posted on 03/03/2015 4:52:07 AM PST by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Freeport

I wonder if a portion of the drop in crime is due to the new security firm not arresting people for petty things like weed or other things that are “victimless” crimes?


25 posted on 03/03/2015 4:58:16 AM PST by rfreedom4u (Do you know who Barry Soetoro is?)
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To: rfreedom4u

Sharpstown is a scary place. We had our cars broken into at 7:00 am on a Sunday morning in front of the ice arena. Which went along with the fights and the subsequent arrival of the police.


26 posted on 03/03/2015 5:18:48 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Islam is the military wing of the Communist party.)
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To: rfreedom4u

Sharpstown is a scary place. We had our cars broken into at 7:00 am on a Sunday morning in front of the ice arena. Which went along with the fights and the subsequent arrival of the police.


27 posted on 03/03/2015 5:18:48 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Islam is the military wing of the Communist party.)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

I didn’t realize until I just looked at the map. I work about a mile to the east of Sharpstown.


28 posted on 03/03/2015 5:27:59 AM PST by rfreedom4u (Do you know who Barry Soetoro is?)
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To: Rennes Templar

ie, went private. Will it work everywhere? Let’s get Scott Walker to purge the gov’t cops.


And now half the donut shops are going under. :-(


29 posted on 03/03/2015 5:33:36 AM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: Freeport

With the FedGov nationalizing local police, this is a better option. I have been heretofore ambivalent but am not any more.


30 posted on 03/03/2015 6:00:33 AM PST by arthurus (it's true!)
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To: Freeport

SEAL also patrols my hood. Westridge: Buff Spdwy near Main.

previously with the former company, perps would time thier hits on houses according to the predictable pattern of the company. It was a farce.


31 posted on 03/03/2015 6:10:58 AM PST by T-Bone Texan (The time is now to form up into leaderless cells of 5 men or less.)
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To: Tupelo

911 calls akways went to the county ...


32 posted on 03/03/2015 6:15:06 AM PST by TexasGator
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To: TexasGator

Well, that depends on where you live. I suspect In Harris County, Texas you are kinda correct. In most areas, the 911 call goes to a call center, then the 911 operator transfers it to the local police, fire or rescue. So if there is a POlice Dept. in these small towns, the call is transferred to them. If no Police Dept., Sheriff’s office gets the call.
Something unrelated I have recently been made aware of is, if you use a cell phone to call 911 that call may or may not go to the 911 center in your county but to a neighboring county. It depends on the cell tower and where it pings to.
A delay that could be disastrous.


33 posted on 03/03/2015 6:31:46 AM PST by Tupelo (I feel more like Philip Nolan by the day)
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To: Tupelo

I lived in Houston for 42 years, most of that time not far from Sharpstown. Sharpstown is not a town or city but an area of Houston that was developed by Frank Sharp. He also owned a state bank that failed in the early 70s. The area is patrolled by HPD.

I never saw or heard of a constable in any part of Harris county doing much of anything. Mostly serving papers and eviction notices. If the crime went down, the constables may have been the perps.


34 posted on 03/03/2015 7:00:16 AM PST by MisterArtery
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To: Tupelo

“Well, that depends on where you live. I suspect In Harris County, Texas you are kinda correct. In most areas, the 911 call goes to a call center, then the 911 operator transfers it to the local police, fire or rescue. So if there is a POlice Dept. in these small towns, the call is transferred to them. If no Police Dept., Sheriff’s office gets the call.”

Kinda correct?

The county sheriff is responsible for response to 911. Our local constables told us NOT to call 911 for quick response to petty crimes since calling 911 would REDUCE the constable response time. We all had the local constable’s office on speed dial.


35 posted on 03/03/2015 9:13:29 AM PST by TexasGator
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To: MisterArtery

“I never saw or heard of a constable in any part of Harris county doing much of anything. Mostly serving papers and eviction notices.”

The constables once only served papers. They gained prominence since the HCSO was not providing adequate coverage. The constables in our neighborhood were very active. Unlike the HCSO, they were there to serve us, not to harass us.


36 posted on 03/03/2015 9:17:02 AM PST by TexasGator
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To: Freeport

I like the idea, but suspect the real crime that has dropped is traffic violations. And I’m good with that too...


37 posted on 03/03/2015 9:17:31 AM PST by kjam22 (my music video "If My People" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74b20RjILy4)
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To: Freeport

sputniknews.com? You bet.


38 posted on 03/04/2015 2:51:23 AM PST by RedHeeler
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