05:33 PM CST on Monday, February 13, 2006

By Doug Miller / 11 News

Houston's police chief painted a dire picture of his department Monday, including serious staffing shortages and buildings that are falling apart at the seams.

KHOU

Hurtt wants to double the number of cadet classes from five to 10 a year.

It's going to cost big bucks to put a dent in the problems and one councilmember is suggesting a sales tax hike.

Chief Harold Hurtt said HPD has 4,805 officers, but to reach the national average ratio of citizens to cops, he says he needs 6,064 officers. With the police academy holding five cadet classes a year, the chief figures HPD won't hit that national average until 2023.

"If we doubled the classes we do right now -- if we did 10 instead of the five we do right now -- we could reach the national average by 2008," said the chief.

Hurtt also released photos of deteriorating conditions at HPD buildings.

"Looking at some of those conditions, I thought I was looking at a police department in a Third World country," said Councilmember Carol Alvarado.

And so, at a time when city government's counting every dollar it can get, one councilmember's floating the idea of a dedicated public safety tax.

"Folks don't want their property taxes to go up. But there may be some agreement that if we lay out a good constructive plan, that maybe sales tax is the place where we could pursue it," said Councilmember Adrian Garcia.

But the mayor apparently doesn't like that idea. In a written statement, his office told us, "We have a plan to significantly increase the size of HPD without raising the property tax rate or the sales tax rate."