Subject: Police

• Race Cars

  If you're black or brown, driving a nice car will get you noticed by police in Houston

  September 2, 1999

• Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: the Key Middle School Saga Continues...

  October 10, 2007

• Sheriffs Department Seeking Air Power

  September 9, 2008

• The Bryan Police-Chief Scandal Gets Stranger, Unless You Think Black-Eye Sex Is Normal

  Since we wrote about wife-fighting city officials in Bryan, the story has gotten weird, and it raises the question, is it worth covering up a domestic brawl by claiming that the black eye happened during sex?According to media reports and a courthouse source who's an Official Hair Balls Pal, here's what's happened:Someone inside the Bryan Police Department leaked a report from the investigation that included details that contradicted the initial version of the story. The document reported that t

  December 5, 2008

• Play It Again, Sam!

  January 20, 1994

• HPD Blues

  January 27, 1994

• Giving the Big No to Nuchia

  March 3, 1994

• The Policy That Won't Die

  April 21, 1994

• A Gay Old Time at Fuzzy's

  August 4, 1994

• Rudy T's Spin Move

  August 4, 1994

• Sam Nuchia in Black and White

  August 18, 1994

• The Case of the Missing Case

  January 5, 1995

• Killer Behind the Badge

  January 12, 1995

• Letters

  February 23, 1995

• All the Law Enforcement You Can Afford

  March 30, 1995

• The Law East of Downtown

  May 4, 1995

• A Whiter Shade of Blue

  May 4, 1995

• Security Risk

  March 7, 1996

• Tales From the Brookside

  May 2, 1996

• No Time for Sergeants

  August 29, 1996

• A Second Mistrial For Dymond Milburn, The 12-year-Old "Hooker" Arrested By Galveston Cops

  A deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial for Dymond Milburn, the black girl who -- when she was 12 years old -- was charged with assaulting police officers who tried to arrest her in her front yard.The cops had been looking for three white hookers. Milburn was hospitalized and later arrested at her school.The Galveston County Daily News reports that she won't be tried again: After eight hours of deliberation, a jury of three men and three women told Judge Roy Quintanilla they were hopelessly dea

  February 10, 2009

• Breaking News: Cops Don't Like Being Told They're Fat

  Photo by sylvarSo far, no one's pointed to any evidence linking lack of physical fitness among some Houston Police Department officers with problems like the disproportionate Tasering of minorities, the shootings of quite a few mentally ill folks, or even the supreme fuck-up that put an innocent man in prison for six years for child molestation.But earlier this week, some Houston City Council members voiced concern that some cops might be too out-of-shape. The Houston Chronicle quoted Councilwom

  February 13, 2009

• Lee Brown's Crown Heights Problem

  July 17, 1997

• The Insider

  October 9, 1997

• Reefer Madness

  July 9, 1998

• Breaking the Blue Code of Silence

  October 8, 1998

• The Truth is Out There

  December 10, 1998

• Get the Picture!

  May 27, 1999

• Tale of the 12-Year-Old

  January 1, 2009

• Is Harris County Jail the Place for A Mentally Troubled Teen?

  Laura Howard got tossed into a jail treatment program, but it was the wrong one for someone whose mental health was in tatters

  December 11, 2008

• Stephen Hunter

  October 9, 2008

• Collision Course

  A lawsuit challenges deputies who shoot fleeing drivers

  April 29, 2004

• The Freedom Fighter?

  James "Smokie" Phillips is running for constable -- and running from his past

  February 19, 2004

• Hard Sale

  A flood of lawsuits has turned Dillard's into a master of defense

  January 8, 2004

• A Closer Look at Dillard's

  January 8, 2004

• Curses, Foiled Again!

  A captain makes dog patties out of HPD's punishment for his profanity

  July 18, 2002

• The War Within

  Mark Aguirre is an aggressive Houston cop who won civilian support by fighting crime. But the abrasive captain could lose his biggest battle: the one raging over him in HPD itself.

  June 27, 2002

• Left Return

  Once burdened by debt and internal politics, a rejuvenated Texas ACLU is back mixing it up with those who dare to trample on the U. S. Constitution.

  January 18, 2001

• Policing the Police

  Does the Citizen Review Committee do the job?

  January 27, 2000

• The Insider

  Report No Evil! UH threatens its top cop for reporting a star athlete's misdeeds

  January 20, 2000

• Dead, Dead, Dead

  May 6, 1999

• Bad Boy In Blue

  Union head Hans Marticiuc (rhymes with wreck) takes aim at the police chief, the mayor, other labor leaders and anyone else who gets in his way

  January 2, 1997

• Price of Justice

  A jury tags Harris County for hiring the killer behind the badge

  October 3, 1996

• Mad Dog's Demise

  Alan Mabry was a man on a mission. His death last month left friends, colleagues and authorities baffled -- as did his obsessive life.

  June 15, 1995

• Bystander Hit During A Police Shooting: Pretty Rare, Expert Says

  Photo by dizfunkshinal Tuesday's Metro Police shooting was not just unusual in that it was the first fatal shooting in the agency's history, but in that a bystander was injured as well. While we wait for more details to emerge from HPD, which is leading the investigation, Hair Balls checked in with a criminology expert about the incidence of bystander shootings."It's just a rare phenomenon," says David Klinger,  a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "...Police

  May 6, 2009

• Annise Parker Says She'll Get Rid Of HPD Chief Hurtt

  Photo courtesy Annise Parker campaignMayoral candidate Annise Parker has plans get rid of Police Chief Harold Hurtt if she's elected. "I will replace the police chief. I think he's ineffective," Parker told the Houston Property Rights Association at a luncheon on Friday. "He doesn't..." Parker was interrupted by someone in the crowd before she could elaborate. (Hair Balls wasn't at the luncheon, but we listened to a recording of it.)That's all Parker said about Hurtt, but it seems she feels stro

  June 9, 2009

• Kemah Says It's Firing Cops Due To Ike; Cops Think Otherwise

  Photo by Daniel KramerMaybe you heard, but Hurricane Ike smashed up Kemah pretty badly, and things aren't looking too good for the city these days.Sure, the vaunted boardwalk is coming back, and the local Wal-Mart is scheduled to reopen today, but the city has reported about a $400,000 loss in revenue after Ike-related damage closed the boardwalk for three months. So, city officials have planned a "strategic planning meeting" to decide how to address the shortage of money. It's scheduled f

  July 8, 2009

• Houston 101: An Earlier Time When Shots Rang Out At TSU

   On May 17, 1967 racial tension and misinformation led to a riot on the Texas Southern University campus.At the time, Houston, like the rest of the country, was struggling with race relations. Herman Short was chief of police under Mayor Louie Welch; Short was especially disliked by Houston's black community for his strong-arm tactics. So when a rumor spread across the TSU campus that a black six-year-old had been shot by a white police officer earlier that day, the reaction was swift and a

  July 23, 2009

• Metro Also Getting Some Of That Stimulus Funding That HPD Missed

  Courtesy Cushing Memorial Library & Archives​Last week we told you how the police force of Milo, Maine (Motto: "Such As It Is") was receiving more stimulus funds than HPD. Admittedly easy to do, since HPD was getting zero stimulus funds.Now the snub gets worse: Metro will be feeding at the trough that is blocked to HPD.The agency will get $3 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, one of 15 such agencies in the country to get money."METRO's police department will use the m

  August 3, 2009

• Judge Says No To Beards In The HPD

  ​The effort by some Houston police officers to wear beards on the job (and off the job, too, we guess) was dealt a setback when a federal judge threw their lawsuit out of court.HPD brass trumpeted the decision by U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal in a press release in which chief Harold Hurtt said the judge's "decision will enable the Houston Police Department to continue to equip officers so they can safely do their jobs of protecting the public at all times."Hurtt and HPD had argued that bea

  September 10, 2009