06:47 PM CST on Tuesday, November 29, 2005

From 11 News Staff Reports

Click to watch Reggie Aqui's 11 News Report

Hans Marticiuc - press conference Part I | Part II | Part III

Houston's largest police union has charged that the city is essentially sitting on emergency call slips and failing to dispatch officers for as much as 12-and-a-half hours.

TUESDAY: Watch Doug Miller's report on 11 News at 6

Hans Marticiuc, President of the Houston Police Officers' Union, analyzed data from a sampling of police districts and charged that some citizens telephoning in emergency calls for, even the most violent of crimes, had to wait hours before an officer was even dispatched to help.

“And these calls ranged from burglaries, burglaries of motor vehicles, shootings, robberies, robberies with weapons, sexual assaults, assaults, disturbances,” Marticiuc said.

The police union president had harsh words for Chief Harold Hurtt, whom he implies is incapable of leading the city's police force.

“If this is the best police chief in the country, then I think the country may be in trouble,” Marticiuc said.

According to Marticiuc, during a heated discussion with the police chief, there was some mention that Chief Hurtt might lose his job over the data.

Marticiuc forwarded his data to Houston City Council members who are expected to raise questions at Tuesday afternoon's City Council meeting.

"We've got a problem here at HPD and that is that I'm not sure we're able to provide basic police services," said Marticiuc.

The Union said it discovered more than 500 cases last month in which the city delayed dispatching a police car from 90 minutes to 12-and-half hours.

"It is ridiculous. That should never have been the case. There should have been a front line supervisor driving his manpower to respond to those calls. That is ridiculous and totally uncalled for. It's appalling to the citizens of Houston," said City Councilman Adrian Garcia.

Mayor Bill White didn't like what he heard at City Council. "I think it's unacceptable to have such a long gap between the time of call intake and dispatch and we're going to do something about that," White said.

Police and city officials said much of the problem is that the Police Academy can't graduate enough cadets to replace police officers who have retired.

Former Mayor Lanier eased a crime crisis shortly after his first election by pouring money into police overtime. Some say Houston should try that again.

"We have to set aside some money for overtime. The number one concern for the city of Houston is public safety, and if we can't do that, then we're failing as a council.

Right now, Houston's police force is struggling to do more with less officers.

Marticiuc said the city should immediately increase police presence by instituting and overtime program similar to the plan introduced in the 1990s by former Mayor Bob Lanier.

One thing to bring this into context is that the data used cover only three police districts, a fraction of the city for just one month.

This is also amidst growing conflict between the police union and Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

KHOU-TV