Harris County Cowers In Fear from What PBT Has Uncovered

 

A couple of days ago, PBT released the 19th episode of its podcast, The Bail Post.  No press release was issued, it was just the normal podcast.  PBT has other episodes covering this issue.  Episode No. 11 covered the release of the report by the Houston Police Officers' Uniton.  You can see the episode by CLICKING HERE.  Episode No. 11 involved a report that addressed a one week period of time.

In Episode No. 18, PBT announced a release of episode number 18 which addressed a new website that reviewed and downloaded the county's data and organized on a interactive website.  The podcast can be found by CLICKING HERE.  The video version of the podcast can be found on youtube by CLICKING HERE.

You can see the video on Facebook by CLICKING HERE.

You can go to the website by CLICKING HERE.

The county is now saying that they do not know where PBT got its data, but it is not accurate.  They support this argument on the grounds that February 4, 2022 was a bad weather day and the courthouse was closed.

That is interesting.  

Harris Court Court Watch shows for February 4, 2022 shows that 48 people appeared for court that day distributed between all of the 16 courts.  Here is the information:

Here is what Harris County Court Watch shows for Court No. 2 on February 4, 2022:

Court No. 2- 

So the report says that 6 people appeared for court.  Here are screenshots from the Harris County's website documenting that the county's official records show that six people appeared for Court No. 2 on February 4, 2022:

Person No. 1-

Person No. 2-

Person No. 3-

Person No. 4-

Person No. 5-

Person No. 6-

We have this same information for Court No. 3 where 3 people appeared, Court No. 5 where 8 people appeared, Court No. 8 where 3 people appeared and on and on.

So this is just one example to document that the records that were used for this website involve the same data from the official court's record which is the Harris County District Clerk's office and they are readily available for download by anyone.  The new website states that for court No. 2 on February 4, 2022 the court reported that 6 people "appeared" for court as required.  PBT has pulled the individual records directly from the Harris County website.  The pictures above document that they are from the Harris County District Clerk's website and the pictures show the six people who are documented to have "appeared" on that date.  In total 48 people appeared that day according to Harris County's records.  Three of the people were not even scheduled to appear, but they appeared any way (this indicates that they appeared to make a plea).  Yet, the Harris County Misdemeanor Courts has accused us of falsifying the data used.  

The Professional Bondsmen of Texas along with other groups such as the District Attorney's office, the Houston Police Officers' Union and Houston Crime Stoppers have presented very different snapshots that are in stark contrast to the presentations by the people who pushed the reform changes and now they are intent on choosing to defend them as their evidence in support of the changes continues to crumble.

So the county must now admit one of two things:  (1) that the county's own records are not accurate; or (2) the county must admit that the records are accurate and the new website is correct and displaying the same data as the county.

If the county's records are not accurate then every report issued by the monitor and any other group is not accurate because they were based upon the same records.

It is really sad when the truth hurts.  But in this case, the facts speak for themselves.  The website released by PBT is made up of the same data that makes up the official records of Harris County and these records confirm what the district attorney's office has been saying and also confirms what the Houston Police Officers' Union report found.

The numbers speak for themselves.  You can believe your "lying eyes" the reforns are leading to more crime.  Harris County's Reforms were not necessary.  They were not mandatory and they have failed.  The people paying the price are the law abiding citizens of Harrris County who are the victims of  the ever growing number of crimes committed daily.

To see the video that started it all:  

The Podcast:

You can see the website by CLICKING HERE.

The report from the Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg stating that the misdemeanor cases failure to appear rate was at least 50%. CLICK HERE.

The report from the Houston Police Officers' Union reviewing one weeks docket from all the misdemeanor court's and concluding that the actual failure to appear rate was over 75%. CLICK HERE.

The 5th Monitor's Report that does not take a position on failures to appear and concludes that the county's changes to their website to follow failures to appear was not "usable data." CLICK HERE.