Crime and community safety in Houston

In the space of two years’ time, the murder rate in Houston has increased more than 70 percent. Our panel discusses what factors have played a role.

Houston - The goal of any community - any society, for that matter, should be elevating the safety of its members, each and every day without infringing, unnecessarily, on fundamental freedoms.

Alarmingly, in our community - greater Houston, there is a pervasive belief that "public safety" has been steadily, destructively, eroding.

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The natural consequence is a growing level of collective "fear" justified by hard facts.

In the space of two years’ time, the murder rate in Houston has increased more than 70 percent. Property crime has exploded to twice the national average.

Hobbled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the dockets of our criminal courts are clogged with a two-year backlog - an estimated 60,000 felony cases with more added daily.

And then, there's the horrific Harris County jail, where nearly 7,000 maximum-security inmates with demonstrably violent criminal histories have wreaked absolute havoc - beating, maiming, and yes, raping - the overworked, under-protected detention staff.

Finally - the thin blue line of law enforcement - thoroughly frustrated by progressive judges who have granted bond to literally thousands of captured criminals who in turn routinely use their freed to claim more victims.

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Is it hyperbole to suggest that as a "city" we stand at a perilous crossroads?