06:25 AM CST on Tuesday, November 29, 2005

By Jeff McShan / 11 News

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Houston just set a record for holiday weekend murders and many want to know why.

Both the police chief and the mayor said they did not think hurricane evacuees factored into the crime numbers

When you call HPD, your calls go to Houston's Emergency Center (HEC).

KHOU-TV

Mike Cummings, former HPD officer, has some figures for concern.

But before they're dispatched to an actual officer who's working the streets there has to be one available. More often than you may realize, locating someone may take several hours.

This is true especially if you live on the city's west or southwest side.

"Anybody who either lives, shops or works west of the Galleria should really be concerned about this because this side of town is significantly undermanned," said Mike Cummings, Public Safety Director for the Westchase Business District. He is also a former HPD officer.

Now he hires off-duty HPD officers to patrol the 80 businesses in his business district, just to keep them safe.

Cummings spent hours going through public records and putting together a detailed report that shows the lack of police presence citywide.

"I looked at everything throughout the city and basically was able to determine, using several models, that the west side of town is significantly undermanned," Cummings said.

Cummings said to properly patrol the Westside District the department would need 506 officers. Right now they have just 403.

He also looked at numbers when it comes to violent crime.

"Based on the different studies that I did, just using the Westside Patrol area, it is anywhere from 70 to 113 officers down," he said.

His report also shows that the Fondren and Southeast substations are severely short staffed.

A few months ago HPD Union president Hans Marticiuc told 11 News the staffing issue hinders officers' ability to fight crime.

"We're getting calls all the time. We've got officers working in districts by themselves. Sometimes roll calls are just two or three people for the entire roll call," he said.

Monday Marticiuc sent a letter to Houston City Council expressing his concerns. Tuesday, he will meet with City Council Tuesday.

Mayor Bill White said it's a concern that's being addressed.

"The highest priority of this administration is getting new police officers in there. That's why we have four academy classes this year. There were years this decade where there were no academy classes," said Mayor White.

But Marticiuc said if the administration relies solely on the academy, it would take years to get to where the department safely needs to be.