If you're curious about what's going down in your area there is a cool website put out by the City of Houston and HPD.
The only crimes tracked (up to 30 days prior) are:
Murder
Rape
Aggravated Assault
Burglary
Theft
Auto Theft
It takes a little playing around to figure out how to go from one crime to the next, but once you get the hang of it you'll find it easy.
I looked up my police beat number and that's what I use for my search criteria, but you can enter an address to get you started.
City of Houston Crime Information
To find your police beat number is a little more difficult, but doable for you sleuthy types:
Just go to the following webpage and scroll down for the inter-active map. Click on the area you live in and then once the page opens up scroll down and look for the Beat Area Descriptions.
Find Your Houston Police Beat Here
For those you in MidTown - I'll save you some trouble:
10H40
When I was looking into moving from the suburbs into the city this year I used the above site to decide just how safe my neighborhood is. It's not perfect but does give a "feel" for the streets at night.
Now I check it from time to time to see if there is a run on burglaries in the area. It's useful to look for trends or if a group is targeting your area, or if they are random one-offs.
Crime in Your Neighborhood (City of Houston) - Cool Website
