Democrat Deception: Crime Rates

On October 24th the unelected bureaucrat David Berry who currently makes over $300 thousand a year, presented inaccurate crime data in Commissioners Court. The data was introduced to the public through several reporters and thanks to Holly Hansen of the Texan, it was found that the report was missing 2 months of data. Several days later, after Holly Hansen broke the story that the data was wrong over the weekend. The County Administrator announced he reported inaccurate data due to “technical issues”.

You can read Holly’s story here: Accurate Data report

In response to a request for comment on the crime reporting problems uncovered by The Texan, Harris County First Assistant District Attorney and Chief of Courts David Mitcham emailed a statement:

“We at the District Attorney’s Office are concerned that inaccurate and incomplete information was used to make the claim that Harris County has recently experienced a substantial and precipitous decline in violent crime, when it has not; Commissioners Court and the people of Harris County should not be misled into sharing this fantasy,” said Mitcham.

2 days after the false crime data’s information came out, Lina Hidalgo released out a tweet to her 120+ thousand followers falsely claiming that crime rates were down trending. Over the weekend, Hidalgo and the Democrats ran several campaign rallies. Most of Hidalgo’s followers and Chronicle readers had been led to believe that their failed policies were actually working.

In my mind, this seems like election manipulation through the media. Hidalgo still has not taken the false crime data tweet down. Nor has she addressed the issue.

Dave Berry released a skewed statement claiming that the crime rates were still better, not acknowledging the fact that our City’s crime rate has nearly doubled since the Democrats took control of the city and county.

Commissioner Tom Ramsey of Precinct 3 addressed the issues outright:

Commissioner Tom Ramsey on Inaccurate Crime Report: ‘This is why there is no trust in Harris County government’

 County Administrator reports crime statistics with omitted data

Last week at Harris County Commissioners Court, County Administrator Dave Berry provided a presentation stating the crime rate is trending down, based on statistics from Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). A recent article from The Texan questioned the validity of the information from the Texas DPS, which by its own account admits that their information is not complete or timely. Furthermore, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office admitted to not reporting at least a month’s worth of crime data due to software issues; therefore, making County Administrator Berry’s presentation inaccurate.

Statement from Commissioner Tom Ramsey:

“Either Administrator Berry was aware of the omitted information and proceeded with the presentation, or he didn’t do his due diligence before presenting such crucial information – both of which are unacceptable for the highest paid employee in Harris County government.

Providing a presentation with inaccurate data, especially during early voting, is questionable and seems disingenuous. You can probably do a quick search to see which elected officials are touting the decrease in crime, a narrative determined as false. To infer that crime is not our #1 problem is a disservice to the residents of Harris County. Even our Medical Examiner’s office shows no decrease in the number of homicides it has investigated so far this year compared to this time last year.

This misrepresentation of the facts by the County Administrator is why we had reservations on the creation of this department to begin with. Updates on crime statistics should be given by the Sheriff, Constables, and District Attorney’s offices, all of whom are elected officials. Instead, Judge Hidalgo, Commissioners Garcia and Ellis placed this in the hands of another un-elected official who is not accountable to the voters. 

This is why there is no trust in Harris County government, and a direct reflection of the poor leadership Harris County has been under for the last four years. Next Commissioners Court, I will be asking Administrator Berry to explain this error, along with the laundry list of software/technology issues impacting law enforcement.”

Constable Mark Herman spoke out of the deceptive crime rates on Twitter

So why is it that the Houston Chronicle, the local news, and the Democrat politicians refusing to acknowledge that they lied to the public?

From First Asssistant DA “Declaring substantial decline in crime based on incomplete, & therefore incorrect, data is inherently misleading…Court should require a public retraction from Berry for his broadcasting such an erroneous report to this Honorable Court.