We all want our neighborhoods to be safe, and many Harris County taxpayers go so far as paying thousands of dollars a year for extra police protection.

But the 11 News Defenders discovered evidence that one law enforcement agency may be cheating homeowners out of their money and safety, and directing deputies to cover it up.

Yolanda Holden is one of those homeowners.

“I was shocked, and I was in disbelief,” Holden said.

Disbelief because she and her neighbors were not getting the security they paid for.

“It is basically fraud, and I don’t understand it,” she said.

And who was supposed to provide that protection? The Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office, run by Ron Hickman.

“That is something I’m willing to look into,” Hickman said when asked by 11 News if the public is getting what it deserves.

More than 80 homeowners associations and municipal utility districts have signed a contract with Constable Hickman’s office for extra security. They generally pay around $55,000 per year per deputy to patrol their neighborhoods. Deputies are supposed to spend 70 percent of their average monthly time in those neighborhoods or “contracts,” with the rest spent outside in the general Precinct 4 district.

But the 11 News Defenders discovered in some cases, documents were altered and falsified to make it appear deputies were spending more time in those neighborhoods than they actually were. Even worse, former and current Precinct 4 employees say the deputies were directed to do it.

“It looks like someone took liquid paper and whited it out,” Holden said after 11 News showed her some records for the MUD 191 contract deputy, where she lives.

Those records show how daily activity sheets submitted for approval were altered to make it appear the deputy was spending more time in the contract neighborhood than he actually was.

During the month of July 2007, the deputy showed in one daily activity sheet that he had worked 253 minutes -- nearly four hours -- outside the MUD 191 area he was contracted to patrol. But after a supervisor reviewed that document, the time mysteriously was changed to just three minutes, making it look as if he barely left the subdivision. The same thing happened with the activity sheet for the deputy’s next day — 234 minutes away from the contract neighborhood was cut nearly in half to 132. The pattern continued on other days as well — 271 minutes cut down to just 51, and 197 minutes changed to 64.

The end result? The changes made it look like the MUD neighborhood got more protection than it did that month.

“It’s very alarming,” Holden said. “We shouldn’t have to police the police,” she added.

Turns out, Holden said during this very same period, many of her neighbors were hit by thieves.

“We had homes broken into, and I always wondered what made them that comfortable to take that many items,” Holden said.

Most any cop will tell you, police visibility deters crime.

Even Constable Ron Hickman.

11 News: “If you don’t have police presence in an area …”

Hickman: “Can things happen?”

11 News: “Can things happen?”

Hickman: “Things can happen.”

11 News: “Can more crimes happen?”

Hickman: “Things can happen.”

11 News we found even more examples of citizens getting ripped off, like the Ponderosa Homeowners Association. During January 2008, the deputy assigned there made numerous district calls. (These are regular police calls and activity that frequently require leaving the contract neighborhood or have nothing to do with its security.) In fact, there were more than 32 hours worth — all outside of the Ponderosa neighborhood.

But precinct records show that that district time was never counted. Hence the monthly summary given to Ponderosa homeowners shows that deputy spent zero minutes away from their neighborhood. Once again, the impression was given that they got more security than they actually did.

11 News: “Can you see how this could possibly distort reality for a homeowners association looking at this?”

Hickman: “I can, but until it’s brought to my attention so I can address it properly, how am I supposed to know?”

But it would be hard not to know, according to one former Precinct 4 employee, who asked not to be identified.

“It’s agency wide, it’s common practice,” the former employee said. “They’re told in their training that they will be altering documents.”

But we also found the general taxpaying public getting cheated as well. Take parks deputies, who are paid for by general tax dollars.

We found many of them assigned to patrolling private-paying contract neighborhoods at the same time. In this situation, both areas could end up getting cheated and put at risk.

We found parks deputies who were also assigned to watch over the parks and the Terranova West and Greenwood Forest Homeowners Associations, or the Heatherloch and Cypress Hill No. 1 Municipal Utility Districts. We also found that precinct documents revealed that these neighborhoods were shortchanged in another way:  It turns out when deputies were patrolling the parks they were supposed to mark them as if they were patrolling their contract neighborhood.

In fact, 11 News obtained an e-mail from a Precinct 4 sergeant, ordering a contract deputy “do not show any district time when checking the parks.”

“It is definitely a falsified version of what actually went on,” said the former Precinct 4 employee. “Deputies that choose not to participate in this falsifying of documents are retaliated against by these same supervisors.”

And then, there’s one deputy constable who is less cop and more mailman.

That’s right, records show this sworn police officer spends most of his time delivering inter-department mail at Precinct 4. What’s more, on certain days he was even ordered to stain the smoking deck and clean the boardwalk at the constable office headquarters.

11 News: “Why would a police officer be cleaning a sidewalk or staining a deck?

Hickman: “I have no idea.”

So where is that deputy officially assigned? Once again, Precinct 4’s parks. In fact, one day last July at Meyer Park, neither he nor any other parks deputies on duty spent any significant time patrolling there.

That evening, a female jogger was dragged into some woods and raped.

“If you’re implying that it happened because there wasn’t coverage there I can’t say that’s accurate,” Hickman said.

Yet all of the evidence is enough for Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack to request an independent investigation.

“The figures didn’t jibe, they just didn’t jibe,” Radack said. “Frankly I have already called the county attorney.”

If citizens were ripped off, Radack added, “the county needs to make it right.”

“I’m open to anything, I’m not trying to hide a thing,” Hickman said, emphasizing that he’s not out to cheat anyone.

“There is no nefarious scheme here to distort or defraud these contracts from the amount of coverage,” Hickman said.