Harris County District Attorney Election

[Charles L. Cotton]

Here is an interesting Houston Chronicle article about the rift between Harris County DA Pat Lykos and one of the Houston PD unions and the Harris County Deputy Sheriff's union.

Chas.

[ELB]

Random initial thoughts:

- I know nothing of the relationship between the DA and the cop unions, but just reading this I suspect there is more trouble between them than the change in the way crack pipe/trace drug possession is charged.

- Poor reporting: The cops claim not pressing felony charges results in more addicts on the street and higher incidences of other types of crimes. The reporter should have followed up on this -- is it true? The policy has been in place for two years, so there should be some kind of data Correlation doens not necessarly mean causation, but if there is no correlation, then they have a very weak case.

- The reporter should have at least asked the police unions for data if not enough time to do it himself. He apparently was able to get numbers of arrests.

- It also seem like a good idea to see how many burglars, hookers, etc, had previous "citations" for having trace amounts of crack -- that might indicate whether the cops have a point. If they are skipping citations because it is "too much work" then they are shooting their argument in the foot.

- The article seems to imply the that reducing the jail population is "good." It's good if there are fewer criminals to lock up, but otherwise, no, it just means they are out running around.

- It seems to me that the "law experts" are smearing the concept of "preventive arrests." Arresting someone for burglary because you think (versus having actual evidence) they might commit a burglary tonight is wrong. Arresting someone for having a crack pipe because having a crack pipe is a felony...that's what cops are supposed to do. If they have a good idea it will prevent other crimes while the offender is locked up, so much the better. If having a crack pipe doesn't deserve felony status, change the law.

[sugar land dave]

I work in Harris county, but live just outside. I shall remain an interested observer.