Perhaps as a consequence, the burglary rate in Austin per 100,000 residents increased over the same period from 1,048 to 1,138, making it among the most commonly reported crimes in the capital. The biggest increase came in residential burglaries, where taking a serial offender out of circulation has a disproportionate benefit to victims. A survey of Austinites included in the materials found that "Burglary of a residence is perceived as the 'most critical' problem by a large majority (55%), with all other categories of crime trailing far behind." Asked to identify the most critical public safety issue in their neighborhood, Austinites said:
- Burglary of a residence: 54.6%
- Burglary of a vehicle: 13.4%
- Violent Random Crime: 3.3%
- Violent Domestic Crime: 1.3%
- Drug Related Activity: 7.7%
- Traffic Issues: 6.9%
- Neighborhood blight: 3.3%
- Graffiti: Less than 1%
Another staff power point (pdf) says that APD's 14 property crime technicians "Respond to 35-45% of burglary crime scenes (limited due to availability of personnel)." So most burglaries they don't even pretend to seriously investigate, but they've got officers available to sit around in school zones to write tickets for texting. What's needed here isn't harsher punishments or more "enhancements" available to prosecutors; APD just needs to shift scarce resources to solving crimes that most matter to the public.
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23 comments:
We're not going to able to lock them up anyhow, so what difference does it make if burglars are caught?
That, my friend, is why this blog keeps arguing that the Lege needs to beef up community supervision funding if they want to incarcerate less and cut $$ at TDCJ.
I suppose if they're caught, we can always put them on community supervision and, employing "evidence based practices," tell them it's not nice to break into your neighbor's house. That'll sure teach them!
No, employing evidence-based practices you require them to reimburse victims (which they'll never do from prison) and face intermediate sanctions for noncompliance with probation terms, with prison still awaiting them if they persist. Sarcasm usually isn't a substitute for argument, just a fig leaf denoting its absence.
Grits said "These are problems caused in the big picture by misplaced policing priorities, spreading law-enforcement resources too thin by trying to use it to solve every new social problem while failing to adequately investigate traditional, bread-and-butter crimes."
Low solvability factors? Yes, not to mention a lot of property owners don't record the make, model and serial numbers off of anything or engrave personal id numbers somewhere on items that they can.
You have a better chance of getting some of your personal property back and the police charging someone when authorities are able to enter stolen property into their database.
Grits, failure to pay restitution is considered a "technical" violation of the terms and conditions of probation. Probation departments and judges are frequently criticized for revoking probationers for such. If these offenders had jobs enabling the to pay restitution to begin with, they likely wouldn't be burglarizing peoples homes. Incidentally, burlary is considered a non-violent, non-3g offense and these are exactly the type of inmates you and others on this blog have been advocating more lenient parole laws for.
3:18, probation departments are criticized for revoking to prison on technicals. As for intermediate sanctions, though, this is what they were created for.
And yes, I know this is a non-3g offense. But perhaps you missed the part of my post where I argued that it's not the harshness of the punishment that's most important for crime reduction but the relative certainty. Make punishment more likely and less harsh and it reduces crime more than if punishment is rare but draconian.
Notice APD isn't even sending techs to 60% of crime scenes but 2:29 wants to blame property owners for the low clearance rate! Blame the victim ... thanks! If that's the problem why is the national rate 2.5 times higher?
No snitching!
@725 No Mr. I Watch Too Much CSI, I wasn't blaming the victim. Property crimes, unlike crimes against persons, have a low solvability factor for various reasons. Not being able to describe stolen property is but just one of many.
Don't blame the police for the sad state of affairs. If it takes a village to raise a child, it will take the whole kingdom to babysit the thieves that violate the sanctity of our homes to steal and terrorize. Gritsforbreakfast what are you doing to be a part of the solution instead of just being a town crier?
I'm kind of with Anon3.18 on this.
Those who commit burglary generally do it multiple times, and those who commit violent crimes generally do so less often (often only once). So while the figures are relatively high for crimes against property, the actual number of criminals is not one per incident.
Many of these burglaries are committed to fund a drug habit, but if no mention is made of that habit during the trial (if there is one), then the inmate does not then qualify for any of the scarce treatment or rehab on offer.
Upon release (and because this is a non-3g offense, they only have to do 1/4 of their time before the BPP can turn them out) the recidivism rate must surely go through the roof.
These are the criminals who cause more widespread misery to a community, and more financial cost, than the majority of so called violent offenders, yet these are the people your Legislators would have back on the streets sooner.
Something doesn't add up (unless you're an insurance company or a retailer).
9:53, APD's clearance rate for burglaries is 60% lower than the national average. So other police agencies apparently can do better. Who is to blame if Austin cops, even though they're the highest paid in the state, aren't solving burglaries as often as officers in other jurisdictions?
APD claims this is because of shortstaffing, but really it's a result of how they've chosen to prioritize their staffing. They have lots of cops, they just don't assign them to this. Implement verified response for burglar alarms and use the freed up staffing to actually investigate crimes instead of performing what's essentially a PR function - visiting homes with false alarms to give the appearance something is being done, even though in 19 of 20 real burglaries it is not.
Sunray, I'd argue that if you're only clearing 1 in 20 cases, harsher sentences for the few who're caught matter very little.
A couple of years ago I caught a burglar red handed as he was stealing some of my power tools. I called the police 2 or 3 times.
The police never came out but I did get a phone call about 3 months later.
The majority of todays police departments write reports, they do not really investigate. Heck, some of them do not even respond to the scene; the victim is requested to come to the PD and make a report.
The departments could save a lot of money if they would tell the victim to go online and make a report. Just think how great the response time would look on paper then! This would free up the officer's that do respond for more important revenue producing events like using a cell phone in a school zone.
Retired 2004
Scott ~ I wasn't exactly advocating harsher sentences for burglars,I was just pointing out that making too much out of the distinction between "violent" and "non-violent" crimes and criminals is a good way of blowing a smokescreen over the impact that many of these non-violent crimes have on a community.
The low clearance rate is directly corelated with the attitude of keeping Austin Wierd.....
If you don't want your stuff stolen here is a great way to prevent it from happening....
First, don't buy anything....just rent what you need, you know cars, tools, things like that.
Then hire out your lawn services, then you won't have a lawnmower, leaf blower, etc., and this will create jobs for the illegal aliens, ex - convicts, dope heads, and people like that.
Then purchase a really good firearm and wlk around in your back yard talking to people who aren't there, and fire off a few blank rounds.
NOBODY wants to break in to a persons home that they think is crazy and has a gun.....
"You loot, we shoot."
http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/eyewitness/110403_4824.shtml
A sign off of Hugart Hollow Road in Sissonville is drawing attention after years of criminal activity in one neighborhood.
"We don't want them in here. We don't want the drugs up here. We don't want the thievery. We want them to stay out," says Ginger Chaowadee, wife of man who made sign.
Some people just aren't that tolerant.
Wow, good thing they put that sign up. That'll solve everything.
If there were more instances of vigilante justice that would certainly put a dent in property crimes.
Just look at that guy in Houston that shot and killed thoses two parolees that were breaking into his neighbor's home.
The Castle law at it's finest!!!!
Right, since Texas passed the Castle Doctrine law property crimes have pretty much been eliminated, huh? God knows there haven't been any burglaries in Houston since that incident. Excellent point, 10:27.
This blog supported the Castle Doctrine bill, but only anonymous fools and demagogues support "vigilante justice."
I got mine, you get yours. WHY ARE TRYING TO TAKE MY MONEY?? WHY ARE LIBERALS ALWAYS TRYING TO TAKE MY MONEY AND TACES??)
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