Mayor Bill White blames Katrina evacuees for Houston's homicide increases

Monday, January 01, 2007

(01/01/07 - HOUSTON) -- The number of murders last year in Houston hit a 12-year high and increased by 13.5 percent over 2005, figures the mayor attributes in part to evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.

There were 379 homicides in Houston in 2006, according to the Houston Police Department. That's the most since 1994, when police reported 419 murders. There were 334 homicides in 2005.

There were 202 homicides in Houston from January to June, a 28 percent increase over the 158 recorded over the same time period the previous year.

Houston Mayor Bill White pointed to Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans as one reason for the increase in murders.

"We did have a surge in population from a city where the homicide rate is eight times the national average," White said.

The city's population increased by 148,000 in 2006, many of them Katrina evacuees, according to the city's planning department. The surge helped keep the city's homicide rate relatively static, rising from 16.33 victims per 100,000 residents in 2005 to 17.24 in 2006.

Nationally, the murder rate increased by 1.4 percent last year, according to FBI figures.

Some experts disagree with White's characterization, pointing to national trends indicating rising rates of violent crime.

"It's not as if Houston's unique," said Jim Lynch, a criminology professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "There are other cities experiencing this."

A social sciences professor at Rice University said the increase has several components.

"A national (crime) trend we can't avoid," Bob Stein said. "We had a population growth, and any population growth will drive up crime rates. And we had an idiosyncratic, rare event -- the Katrina evacuees."

Houston saw a decrease in other types of violent crime in 2006, police said. Robberies, rapes, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts and stolen cars dropped between 2 percent and 9 percent when compared to 2005.

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