HOUSTON – Channel 2 Investigates has learned the Houston Police Department is disbanding an entire division, and reassigning those officers and others to patrol, in an effort to shrink response times and increase visibility.
The Investigative First Responder Division had been a successful venture, by most yardsticks, in so-called "hybrid policing."
Officers in the IFR Division followed cases from beginning to end, rather than taking a report, and forwarded the case to another division.
IFR officers handled a wide range of crimes, from assaults to burglaries.
Those officers will now be headed to patrol positions on or around July 2.
The move is an attempt to make up for a substantial shortage of Houston police officers.
Acting Houston Police Chief Martha I. Montalvo said in a statement: "To make good on a promise to our citizens to add more officers to respond to service calls, we plan to deploy officers from some administrative positions -- as well as those assigned to the Investigative First Responder Division (IFR) -- to patrol stations around the city. The IFR investigators have done a tremendous job in assisting patrol officers in initial stages of investigations such as robberies, assaults and family violence incidents. However, we have investigators in divisions who can and will handle those cases. The IFR investigators can utilize their skills in initial on-scene investigations and their experience will be very beneficial in patrol. We have also identified administrative positions currently held by officers who will be moving to patrol stations to perform the same function of going in to our calls for service loop.
"So, by taking the above actions, we'll be adding about 175 officers back to serve and protect our neighborhoods and increase our visibility as much as we can."
The move has been met with some degree of criticism from the Houston Police Officers Union.
"This is nothing more than a shell game. It's moving people out of the investigation area back to the patrol area. We're still going to be lacking manpower," HPOU President Ray Hunt said.
He does not support the disbanding of an entire division, he said, and while call response times would most likely get better with the chief's plan, it would come at the cost of investigating crimes.
Hunt said he thought the both the chief and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner were earnestly trying to find workable solutions with a tight budget.
The Houston Police Officers Union believes the Houston Police Department is short some 1,500 officers; the city puts the number closer to 800.
IFR Division clearance rates (source: HPD):
- 2015 – 5,145 cases with 3,074 cleared – 59.75%
- 2014 – 4,590 cases with 2,823 cleared – 61.5%
- 2013 – 5,962 cases with 4,083 cleared – 68.48%
