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A new year means a new goal for Harris County sheriff's deputies, who have gone on record that their objective this year is to reduce crime.
Capt. John Nanny said that violent crime typically picks up with the late shift.
“We have five districts in the Harris County Sheriff’s Office,” he told KHOU. “If you wanted to divide 100 by that, it’s basically 20, but some of them are not seeing as much participation as others."
Last month, the Harris County Commissioner’s Court authorized a program to enhance law enforcement's ability to deter violent crime and while the number of deputies the county has hired has not risen, commissioners are leaning on overtime pay to help the program succeed, according to KHOU.
According to the news station, the Harris County Safe Program was given $2.6 million to roughly 100 extra deputies on patrol daily.
Harris County Safe program was approved by commissioners last month with hopes of helping the county classify “seven micro-zones where violent crime is concentrated,” according to Click2Houston.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office substation in Cypresswood is among the busiest in the county, which Nanny oversees and he said his jurisdiction is "constantly growing."
However, the Harris County Deputies’ Organization told the news station that the program was the wrong approach to deter crime.
"It's the wrong kind of triage. We should be looking at hiring more officers, putting more people in investigations," David Batton, with the Harris Co. Deputies' Organization, told KHOU.
Nanny said deputies were working as much as they could and it was possible to work them too hard, however it was too early to tell whether the program was meeting its objective.
According to Click2Houston, the Harris County Safe initiative will use the micro-zone classifications as means to boost police patrol in those areas with “precision policing.”