The chronicle now reports no significant per capita increase in crime in the counties surrounding but not including Houston. They are using data from the end of 2005. They don't use,oddly enough, the data from Harris county, which has the most people and is where the city of houston is located. (But I did those analyses in a previous post (link below)

[Montgomary county sherrif] Norris said there is no evidence to show that people displaced by Katrina have had any effect on local crime rates.

Norris said that a few months after the hurricane, police quit paying attention to place of origin after experience showed the Katrina victims were not appearing in police reports in any significant numbers.

They are missing the real story about the surge in murder rates compared to the non-surge in other crimes. Alas. Others have lambasted the soaring houston crime rate, hopefully this will put some of those comments to rest. ANyway as a famous person once said, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. By incorporating the murder rate into the overall crime rate, you hide the surge in murders.

Update: I sent Eric Hanson a link to my analyses, and got a quick 'thanks for the comments' reply. I guess that means that the story will stay buried. Oh well.