Photo: Moment RF
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare has announced that he will no longer prosecute "nuisance" crimes; instead, they'll be referred to mental health professionals. This includes crimes like trespassing, which often leads to more serious crimes.
Former HPD Captain and criminal justice expert Greg Fremin told KTRH that this could lead to more crime because, "Trespassing can lead to other crimes as well. Burglary, sexual assault, domestic violence—there are a lot of things that can emanate from trespassing."
He went on to say that a policy like this just sends the wrong message to criminals, and could lead to more violent crime. He said, "There are some people that need to go to jail. When we start decriminalizing certain types of offenses, it can have a very chilling effect on society."
This is something that we have seen in other major cities with Soros-backed District Attorneys. The pattern of decriminalizing even minor offenses, including things like petty theft, has led to huge increases in those crimes.
Fremin pointed out that in some places, this has escalated to the point where entire stores have been forced to shut down because as shoplifters have gone unpunished, shoplifting rates have skyrocketed.
Teare himself said in a speech at a Police Interaction Program event that this would help reduce the overcrowding that we've seen in the Harris County jail. He also said that because the maximum sentence for trespassing is so small, arresting and prosecuting trespassers doesn't really solve the problem. He added that we have to "get creative" about how we solve this problem.
Fremin pointed out, however, that the root cause of the Harris County jail's overpopulation problem isn't mass arrests of petty criminals, but rather, violent criminals who are awaiting trial due to slow court proceedings. He doesn't think Teare's new plan will address that problem.
We reached out to the DA's office about this, and they provided the following quote:
"Of course, we’ll still authorize arrests and, if necessary, prosecute these crimes. We are building our Mental Health Division at HCDAO with experienced prosecutors who understand the importance of treating people suffering from mental health issues. That leads to reducing recidivism."