Click to watch video

Lawrence Walton is getting ready to move.

But he’s not moving out of one of the apartment complexes in southwest Houston, the ones police and federal agents have raided, arresting gang members and taking their guns.

No, Walton is moving in.

“As a matter a fact, I’m excited about the move,” he said.

He wasn’t lured there by a good deal from the landlord, but rather, the Lord himself.

“We’re going to go in there with God’s people and we’re going to try to make a long term difference.”

Houston police have decided to try something new to fight this area’s old problem with crime.

Last year, violence had soared — some blaming it on Katrina evacuees — but these neighborhoods for years had been a haven for gangs.

So earlier this year, the Houston Police Department dramatically increased patrols by putting officers on overtime.

They also worked with federal agents on those raids, and a community group formed its own task force to aggressively rid the area of graffiti.

James Myers has lived here for more than 30 years.

“We have a lot of eyeballs on the streets. and that’s not what gangs want,” Myers said.

And so far this year, violent crime has dropped, some 30 percent.

But while officers on overtime and task forces may be working, they are a quick fix, not a permanent solution.

For that, Houston police are now looking for help from high above. It is time for the Lord to help start enforcing the law.

In coming weeks, 20 officers who work out of HPD’s station will be joined in their cars by clergy recruited from neighborhood churches.

“We’re not in the business to reach the hearts and minds the way trained ministers are,” HPD Fondren Patrol Capt. Williams said.

The ministers will act as liaisons for the cops, especially in emotionally charged, violent crime and drug investigations where police are not always welcomed.

But that’s not all.

Some of the church members — along with their spouses — will actually move into a half-dozen of the most crime-plagued complexes that will first be swept by HPD.

“What we’re going to do is good, old-fashioned law enforcement work,” Capt. Williams said. “Making sure that they’re safe, making sure the bad guys are weeded out.”

Weeding out the bad guys so Walton and his wife can move in and help out.

“The thing about living in the complex is you’ll be able to be one on one with them.”

Walter August is senior pastor of this church which is helping organize and fund the program.

“We’re going to make sure they pay for absolutely nothing,” he said.

It fits the church’s mission: Do something to bring meaningful change to this community, built for singles in the ‘70s oil boom. Plenty of pools for parties back then but few playgrounds for the thousands of kids who live here now.

“When these apartments were first built, they weren’t built with children in mind,” Pastor August said.

No wonder gangs flourished, he said, but no better place to try to change things.

Should the police, though, be partners with preachers?

“If anybody wants to criticize the police department for praying for crime to go down, I’ll take the criticism all day long,” Capt. Williams said.

It is one crime program that might have a prayer of a chance.