Texas launches task force to target repeat criminal offenders in Houston area

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HOUSTON — Gov. Greg Abbott is launching a “violent crimes task force” in Harris County composed of several state, county and local law enforcement agencies to go “all in” on identifying, tracking and arresting repeat criminal offenders.

“This is a Texas-size effort by both the state Department of Public Safety as well as local law enforcement at every level, an effort to crack down on dangerous repeat offenders in the Houston area using the full might of our most elite law enforcement officers,” Abbott said during a press conference on Wednesday.

It’s an initiative Abbott said he plans to expand at some point to the rest of the state and hopes will be “the national model for public safety in America’s largest cities.”

Abbott didn’t say which areas of Texas would be next to get a similar task force: “It could be rural Texas, urban Texas, suburban Texas — we will look at every corner of the state to make sure we're making it as safe as possible,” he said.

Abbott said officers from multiple agencies will “be swarming these operations in these neighborhoods,” looking for repeat criminal offenders. The governor said he’s talked to Houston Mayor John Whitmire, who didn’t attend the press conference, “about public safety at least a half dozen times” to ensure that Houston police are working to bring down crime rates.

“He’s proud of the fact that crime is going down, but understands that there’s a lot more to get done,” Abbot said of Whitmire.

Abbott said he chose to start the task force in Houston because of a “historic relationship that already exists” between him and local leadership.

“I thought this was a good place to start, and then we will learn and be able to modify our strategies based upon what we do here, and then be able to deploy our best strategies to other areas across the state,” he said.

DPS Director Freeman Martin sat next to Abbott at the conference and said residents in and around Houston should expect to “see an increased uniform presence and patrol operations in high crime areas.” Martin said such “saturated patrols” have proven effective at reducing crime in Houston and other Texas cities.

Although some Houston neighborhoods, such as downtown and the area around the medical center, have seen crime rates climb over the last few years, according to an analysis by the Houston Chronicle, most neighborhoods are seeing crime decline. For example, Greater Greenspoint, a neighborhood in north Houston, has seen crime drop nearly 20% in the last five years, the newspaper reported.

Abbott said “there’s never been any threat or any assertion” that President Donald Trump will send the National Guard to Houston, as he has to Washington D.C., because “the president does know that I, as governor, as well as our local law enforcement, that we’re very committed to” reducing crime across the state.

Abbott blamed the state’s bail system for allowing criminals to commit more crimes. He said it’s why he signed changes to the system into law in June, limiting who is eligible for cashless bond. In November, Texans will vote on Proposition 3, which would deny bail for people accused of certain violent or sexual offenses.

Abbott has deployed state troopers to Texas cities before to augment local police. In 2023, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and Abbott made a deal to send state troopers to support Austin’s understaffed police department.

After four months, Watson suspended the partnership after troopers pulled out a gun during a traffic stop of a person with a 10-year-old in the car, but Abbott responded by sending 30 more troopers to the city, bringing the total to 130 on the ground.

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