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With four candidates dueling it out in a Republican Primary to replace her and with rumors of a primary challenge, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is attempting to silence critics who have long criticized her over her lack of urgency to address Harris County’s burgeoning crime issue.
This week, Hidalgo launched the Harris County Safe Program, a $2.6 million crime reduction initiative. The program is limited in scope, only lasting for 120 days and targeting “micro zones” or ZIP codes where crime is running rampant.
“Even though crime is up,” Hidalgo said during a press conference, “the good news is that the violent crime and the violent crime increase is concentrated in particular communities in our county, it’s not necessarily all over the place.”
The three-pronged approach that Hidalgo calls “a precision, policing initiative” will use data, mapping, and analytics to determine the micro-zones that will be targeted. The zones will be within the five policing districts that the Harris County Sheriff’s Office manages.
The second area will focus on deterrence. Hidalgo wants to increase police visibility to deter criminal behavior. Specifically, she said the program will prioritize street-level deterrence and prioritize the arrests of repeat offenders in the communities.
The last prong is aimed at the community. The goal is to work with the community before, during, and after to engage and ensure there are no disproportionate impacts.
“By increasing policing in those areas, by working to take repeat, violent offenders off the streets in the targeted micro-zones, we will be able to make a dent in our region’s crime rate,” she said.
While the worst of the county’s crime might be highest in the targeted ZIP codes, it is not confined to those ZIP codes. It’s naïve to believe that if you deploy additional policing resources into crime-ridden ZIP codes, and publicly announce doing so, that crime won’t move to other ZIP codes and regions in our county.
A Department of Justice report examined displacement and diffusion when law enforcement targets these “hotspots” for crime. In the report, they interviewed an individual who was arrested and it was pretty telling,
“…lately Narcotic come around Monday and Thursday and someone is going to get arrested on those days…that is a sure bet. On these days I just stay underground until the cops go home because I’m not stupid.”
The community aspect of the program is promising, but not without addressing why repeat offenders are being released and sent back to the communities they came from. By now everyone has heard multiple stories of arrests being made only to find that the suspect was already out on multiple bonds.
How will any community member feel safe engaging with the police and reporting crimes if they fear that the person they are reporting will be back in their neighborhood within days or hours? Any attempt at addressing crime in Harris County that doesn’t include consideration of what is happening within the judicial system is dishonest.
Hidalgo, often lauded as a rising progressive star, is also coming under fire from her progressive allies.
Alan Dettlaff, dean of University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work, responded to Hidalgo calling the proposal “incredibly disappointing.” Dettlaff said, “this will only lead to increased disparities and further racist outcomes at the hands of police.”
Another commenter said, “she’s not innovative or bold. Just another run-of-the-mill Democrat following the same failed playbook they’ve used for the last 40+ years.”
“So many protests last year and Democrats are going full in now on the tough on crime train before elections,” read one tweet.
And therein lies the problem. Hidalgo wants to both be a progressive icon and have the ability to distance herself from it when it comes time to appeal to the general public.
In the wake of the George Floyd murder, Hidalgo said that it may be more effective to spend resources on treatment for mental health and substance abuse than to invest in police. In an interview she was quoted saying, “Where does it say more prosecutors make you safer? Where does it say more police make you safer?”
As Hidalgo heads towards her first reelection campaign, she is playing a dangerous game, both electorally and practically. She is attempting to distance herself from policies pushed and statements made in the past that exacerbated Harris County’s crime issue but at the same time she wants to appease her base and ride a wave of progressive popularity.
Charles Blain is the President of Urban Reform.