HOUSTON -- It’s nothing new to see a police officer speeding down the street with the sirens wailing.

But a small group of Houston police officers are trying something totally different: They’re fighting crime by leaving the police cars behind.

The patrols begin at 4 p.m.: always the same streets and the same turns.

For six weeks, these bike patrol officers have come to know this neighborhood in ways cops in cars, can’t. In that time, property crime here has dropped by more than one-third.

“After several weeks of addressing it, it’s a totally different, it looks like a totally different community and the citizens are out walking their dogs and kids are out playing,” HPD Lt. Randy Wallace said. “It makes a tremendous difference on the overall quality of life.”

This is Operation Green Sweep: Houston Police on bikes and horses, not responding to crime — but hunting for it.

Crime statistics for one Montrose-area neighborhood indicate auto theft is down 16 percent; car break-ins are down 38 percent; and burglary is down 57 percent.

Sgt. Chad Helms and his team notice the little things – like two jaywalkers.

“It’s probable cause to stop them, see who they are,” Sgt. Helms said.

A quick check reveals they’re not wanted for anything, so they get off with a warning.

Since green sweep started, police have warned or cited more than 350 people. Ten more were arrested for felonies, and 80 people they stopped had warrants out for their arrest.

The money for this, nearly half a million dollars, comes out of the police overtime budget. But here’s the problem: “We’re understaffed right now and have been understaffed for quite a while, just like the rest of the department,” Lt. Wallace said.

There aren’t enough horses or bike patrol officers to cover more than two areas:

First, neighborhoods along White Oak Bayou, just north and west of downtown.

The second area is just west of downtown — parts of Montrose, and near the light rail, to Highway 59.

They focus on park space. Once they found a campsite hidden behind some trees along the Highway 59 spur.

It’s littered with stolen electronics, CDs and even a shopping cart.

“They probably put this here out of sight then they go around the corner, hit people up for money or whatever in the street,” Sgt. Helms said.

When cops forced everyone out, car break-ins at a nearby apartment complex fell to almost zero.

But for all its successes, this program won’t last forever. The funding runs out on June 30.

The cops hope they’re proving their worth. They’ll ask for more money in the next police budget. Until then, they’ll to shift to new areas, well aware that when they leave one neighborhood, the people who used to sleep here could come right back.

“They could. Nothing’s stopping them; nothing’s stopping them now,” Sgt. Helms said. “We come out, clean it up, the next week, it’ll be re-habitated.”

Three months to go until the funding stops, when we’ll learn if this crackdown can continue.