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Emails (excerpted), Jim Bigham, president, Sharpstown Civic Association, March 5, 2015

On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 12:47 PM, Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) <wgselby@statesman.com> wrote:

 

Hello from Austin. I write at the suggestion of James Alexander because I am trying to check a claim that crime in Sharpstown declined 61 percent in 20 months after Seal Security came aboard, as described here. James told me the study he mentioned was undertaken by the civic association and he recommended we visit about that for our story. Can you forward the study and visit about your experiences by phone or email?

 

Thank you.

 

W. Gardner Selby

Reporter / News

Austin American-Statesman

PolitiFact Texas

4:19 p.m.

This story was scraped from a guns.com editorial: It's Time to Consider Privatized Policing. by Scott Unzicker. Other sources added the headline as it went viral.

We refused participation when he called as we did not find him or guns.com to be a credible outlet. Note that he says, "Although calls to the Sharpstown Civic Association were not returned, it’s easy to deduce why they embraced the idea of a privatized security solution."

So we wouldn't talk and he "deduced" a story to support his opinion. The claims of crime reduction are his not ours. We currently use BOTH off police officers and private security as part of our program. This KHOU11 piece from this week gives a good overview about the issue with patrols, constables, and Sharpstown crime. I mention in the story that the Constables did a good job for us, but it had become too expensive.

Please let me know if I can be of more assistance.

Jim          

Jim Bigham, Presiden 

On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 4:42 PM, Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin) <wgselby@statesman.com> wrote:

Got it. As discussed, do you also have your own internal report on changes in crime over time? I’d be happy to look at that.

 

g.

10:08 p.m.

I've attached a compilation of data that will help you explore the situation more thoroughly.

...

Note, we have practically no serious violent crime in the subdivision boundaries. Crimes like murder, aggravated assault, or rape are almost non-existent. Our issue has always been property crimes, like burglaries where the victim has a financial loss, and feels violated that someone has been in their home. ...

We watch everything but have focused on BURGLARY, identfiying the locations, times, and patterns. This allowed us to set up directed patrols, concentrating patrol activity, and provide data (suspicious vehicles & people) to HPD.

 

Our crime reduction project really began to show results last spring and we were optimistic by early summer 2014 we were on the right track. We've since had a brief robbery spree and another burglary hotspot (Jan 15), but the overall decline is measurable.

The current six month trend is a 2/3rds reduction in burglaries. Not ALL crime, not the entire community, but burglaries inside our very large subdivision boundaries.

 

There is NO SINGLE FACTOR in our success other than perhaps determination.

Here is the basic model: CITIZENS + HOUSTON POLICE + PRIVATE PATROL (or Off Duty PD)

I hope that helps and feel free to reach me as needed. If you run a story, I'd appreciate a heads up.

Best--

Jim      

Jim Bigham, President