Shakeup at city jail brings civilians back

(3/03/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- There's been a shakeup at the Houston city jail. Just over a year after civilian employees were let go and replaced with police officers, the department has changed its mind. Now the civilians are returning.

The city says it needs more officers to get criminals off the streets, not babysit the ones who have already been caught. This plan is really a case of taking what resources you have and putting them to better use. Not only is this an opportunity for HPD to beef up its police presence, it's also a chance for some of the civilian jailers who lost their jobs to try and get them back.

"Certainly they were doing a valuable job for the city and now we would expect the city to certainly seek them out," said AFSCME Union Spokesman Thomas Webb.

Webb is talking about civilian jailers, more than 200 of them, who lost their jobs to uniformed Houston police officers more than a year and a half ago. He wants the city to seriously consider rehiring them as it continues to reassign those officers back to patrol.

"All of them are probably not employed at this time, but the layoff was so effective and it was such a devastating thing, that they'd seek other employment," said Webb.

So far, seventy officers have been reassigned in recent months. The goal is to move another 30 out of the jails by the end of this month -- a move that puts an additional 100 cops back on patrol.

Houston City Councilman Adrian Garcia says it couldn't have come at a better time.

"The status of our manpower shortage is critical," he said.

The city has known about the shortage for quite some time, but the strain only got worse after Hurricane Katrina, when the city took in more than 100,000 evacuees. HPD Union President Hans Marticuic says that leaves the city no choice but to redistribute the manpower, a process that comes with a whole new set of challenges.

"We've got a couple of policies that may be conflicting and of course, we have seniority issues and other things going on," he said. It's a complicated mess right now."

There's a debate brewing over where these officers should go.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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