Thanks to Katrina Evacuees, Houston’s Homicide Rate Increases

Hurricane Katrina and its devastating aftermath last August left thousands of people along the Gulf Coast homeless. Houston, TX, opened its arms wide and welcomed in over 150,000 evacuees. Houston police have now said that the evacuees are partly responsible for an increase of nearly 17.5% in homicide rates so far this year over the same period in 2005.

Judge Robert Eckels, chief executive of Harris County, where Houston is located, said that Katrina evacuees arrested in Houston have cost the county’s criminal justice system more than $18 million. The police and sheriff’s department in Harris County don’t have any statistics on how many evacuees have been arrested, but the sheriff’s department reported a 41% increase in felony arrests in November compared to the year before. In June, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent $19.5 million to Houston to help pay for more police officers and overtime because of the need for an increased police presence following the influx of evacuees.

Vincent Wilson, a leader of the Katrina Survivors Association who was himself evacuated to Texas, was impressed by the way Houston leaders laid down the law for Katrina evacuees from the very beginning. Just a few days after the storm, Mayor Bill White appeared on television flanked by Houston police, and made a statement targeted toward Katrina evacuees. He welcomed them to his town but warned them that for anyone who crossed the line, a jail cell would be waiting. Wilson said that in New Orleans, before the hurricanes hit, "everyone knows that if the jail’s crowded you get a slap on the hand and get released."

Many evacuees paid little or no heed to the mayor’s stern warning. About 21% of Houston’s 232 homicides through July 25 involved either a suspect or a victim who was a Katrina evacuee. Police attribute much of the violence to fighting among rival gang members from New Orleans. "New Orleans allowed a lot of these guys to stay on the street for whatever reason or be picked up and released after 60 days," said Capt. Dale Brown, supervisor of Houston's homicide division. "Texas law, I don't want to say it's tougher, but we take these offenses very seriously."

Louisiana bounty hunger James Martin has made seven trips to Texas in pursuit of bail jumpers, following leads from abandoned New Orleans homes. "I don’t think Texas really knows what they got," Martin said. Martin’s partner, Michael Wright, said that there is a serious problem due to evacuees who fled New Orleans with criminal records. "No one knows who they are over here."

Eckels knows the evacuees have caused real problems with crime rates in Houston, but he hopes that the county’s worst troublemakers will go back home once their federal assistance money is used up. But for those who choose to stick around, the county will be watching and waiting, he says. "We don’t put up with it here. If you break the law, you’re going to be prosecuted."