Baytown Concerned Citizens – Front and Center

Whew! A lot has happened here in Baytown since last Sunday’s article. The city of Baytown calls an $82.5 million bond package election, a local teen is charged with felony murder in the deaths of four companions, Garry Brumback is approved as city manager, it is revealed Hakeem Olajuwon has purchased 1,250 acres of undeveloped land in Chambers County near Baytown and a group calling itself Baytown Concerned Citizens is organizing to help City Hall and the Baytown Police Department…fight crime.

Although all are newsworthy and demand attention and comments, I want to address crime and what citizens are doing to bring it into control. As you may have heard, about 70 citizens gathered last Monday night at El Toro’s on Garth Road for a whirlwind meeting to address the crime problem.

Input from citizens will be presented to city council in the near future in the form of recommendations – not demands. Send recommendations and concerns via email here: baytownbert@gmail.com

Let’s look back about one year. In June of 2006, various crimes in town provoked me to write this article: In August of 2006, I asserted crime was spinning out of control here in Baytown. The article is here: In September of 2006, I wrote about Baytown crime here: And then again in December of 2006, I wrote an article about the increase of crime in our city and it is located here:

In April 2007 I posted the Survival Guide for Baytown (or any other city) here:

The August article was picked up by the Houston Chronicle and an interview was granted, although reluctantly. Houston tends to see Baytown as a ghetto environment and while even local citizens may debate that, I feel we have problems that are better handled by Baytonians, than by the eager to criticize public at large. The next time we caught the public eye was over North Main’s Dirty Dozen and I refused a Channel 11 interview; citing local issues were best left to locals.

We are back in the mainstream news and this time it involves the Houston Chronicle & Fox TV News, with more soon to follow. They are talking and its negative Baytown - again. This past week I talked on the phone with a Chronicle reporter for the better part of an hour about our citizen’s crime initiative and I repeatedly requested that Baytown would not be painted as an ugly picture. We have problems that we can turn around and I told them we are in the process of addressing those issues through community involvement.

I told them Baytown was made up of hard-working dedicated people who are working 40 to 80 hours a week and while we toil, crooks spoil. We are tired of crooks, both homegrown and visitor/criminal shoppers, taking advantage of us. With our booming population, our city is under siege and we are not going to sit on our laurels and be victimized any longer.

Rumors are flying and allegations of internal strife inside the police department are beginning to surface also. The department itself is keeping mum, but if this is true, it will only add to the crime problem. Citizens are sick and tired of the wave of increasingly violent and bold crime we are experiencing and if there is indeed strife inside the ranks of our police department, it needs to come to a halt immediately. We need cohesion inside BPD for it to be effective, especially at a time like this.

The Neighborhood Watch Programs are being revitalized and reorganized as I write this. Mike Kercher, Jerry Cates, a lady known only as Kimber and myself are doing our dead level best to get information out to the public through a website Mike set up here: http://www.hotpursuit.com I urge all honest folks from Baytown and the surrounding areas to register and find the section at the top of the page marked Neighborhood Watches where you can track crime and discuss your local group. If you are currently active in a Neighborhood Watch group, by all means register and begin using the site to trade information.

This wonderful use of the Internet is a tool is in its infancy and will grow with your input. It will become a very important part of fighting crime in the city and surrounding areas.

The goal of Baytown Concerned Citizens will be to work with City Council and the Baytown Police Department to stop crime in its tracks. At no time are we advocating violence or vigilante justice. We are however actively recruiting vigilant and observant citizens, who are willing to make that 911 phone call to stop crime and make our city a place felons are reluctant to visit.