Police Leaders Slam Their Own Hometown on Fox News

Douglas Griffith and Ray Hunt spew debunked crime spike narrative despite growing evidence Houston is safer

Houston police union leaders Doug Griffith and Ray Hunt appeared jointly on Fox News yesterday to portray their hometown as a dangerous, post-apocalyptical crime-ridden city:

• 'I would not let my wife or my kids walk down the streets of Houston at midnight under any circumstances,' said Hunt.

• "We had the George Floyd effect come down. We can't hire. We can't retain our officers. The people are leaving left and right." said Griffith

Reality check: According to a wide array of official sources, violent crime is down by double digits in Houston, and funding for local law enforcement is at record levels, facts omitted by Fox News reporter Elizabeth Heckman:

• A report issued just last week from AH Datalytics revealed a massive, 25% drop in homicides in Houston.

• Houston Police Chief Troy Finner reported both violent and nonviolent crime declined in a report last Fall.

• FBI data shows violent crime in Houston has trended downward since 2020.

• The budget for Houston Police exceeded $1 billion for the first time last year, according to statistics provided by the City of Houston.

• Harris County spending for law enforcement is also at record levels. Here’s what Republican Pct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey said after the passage of the county’s latest spending plan: “This budget provides $119 million for law enforcement. That is this most significant investment in law enforcement in the history of Harris County,”

We’ve reached out to Heckman for comment and will update this post if and when we get a response.

Why it matters: Media bolstering hair-on-fire claims of a crime spike will continue to lose credibility with the growing number of Houstonians who are experiencing a different reality on the ground. Politically, these latest comments from the union bosses may also put them at odds with the new Whitemire administration, whom they seem to be deliberately calling out as weak-on-crime with these comments.