Houston Police Officers' Union Issues Shocking Report- Harris County Misdemeanor Courts Gone Wild!

The Houston Police Officer's Union has issued a report regarding the misdemeanor courts in Harris County.  This report can be described as shocking and even jaw dropping.  You may come away from this report saying, "Why did someone not tell us that this is what the courts were doing?"  Does this peak your interest?

This is from the Executive Summary of the report:

The purpose of this report is to attempt to examine the conflicting claims made by reports issued by the monitor for the ODonnell decree regarding misdemeanor bail practices, versus the report from the Harris County District Attorney, regarding the settlement and reforms enacted regarding misdemeanor cases in Harris County and its subsequent impact on crime and public safety.

The assertions set out in the two documents could not be more contradictory. In its report, the monitor reports every six months claims that misdemeanor criminal justice reforms are working. It states that recidivism is staying essentially the same and that crime is not increasing as a result of these changes. By implication, it concludes that the increase in crime must be due to other considerations. In contrast, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg's, report states that misdemeanor reforms are causing crime to increase and that recidivism rates are rising.

In this document, we hope to provide additional insights as to the status of the Harris County misdemeanor courts in order to allow the public to reach their own conclusions regarding whether the ODonnell settlement is, in fact, the cause of increasing crime.

The report makes four conclusions:

Conclusion No. 1:

On average the failure to appear rate for the misdemeanor courts in Harris County is 76.09%.  Only two misdemeanor courts issue judgment nisis.  The remaining 14 courts fail to issue any judgment nisi or bond forfeiture when a defendant fails to appear for court.

Conclusion No. 2:

It gets worse, the overall average appearance rate is 15.97 percent. This means that out of every 100 cases set on docket, just under 16 defendants appeared in court. 

Conclusion No. 3:

In reviewing ten years' worth of statistics for Harris County misdemeanor cases, it appears that the court’s backlog has increased by 172.79 percent over that period of time. The number of cases piling-up have more than doubled since the ODonnell settlement.

Conclusion No. 4:

Last year, according to the reported data, 71.99 percent of all misdemeanor cases disposed were dismissed. In 2020, the courts dismissed 71.98 percent of all such cases.  How much worse would the backlog be if the courts were not just dismissing cases.

Keep in mind, Harris County spent over $100 million to create this debacle.  

You can download the report by CLICKING HERE.