On June 1 Heathlake community will begin security patrol and services with State Patrol Services.

State Patrol will provide armed patrols, vacation watch, safety escorts, and Flock camera monitoring. Should anyone need any of these services, call the below number, and save it in your phone contacts:

State Patrol Hotline: 346-441-1989

Should anyone also witness a suspicious person, action or anything else that may seem suspicious, please call the police and also report to the State Patrol Hotline.

Numbers to remember:

All Emergencies and to file a police report – 911 or 281-463-6666

Constable: 281-463-6666

Houston Police: non-emergency – 713-884-3131

State Patrol: Report suspicious vehicles, request vacation watch or escort: 346-441-1989

PLEASE report suspicious vehicles in the community. With the Flock cameras now in place, we have the ability to track and monitor suspicious vehicles and put a tag on these vehicles should they enter the community again or often. Call 911 or the non-emergency line for HPD (713-884-3131), or email VicePresident@Heathlake.org.

In the event there is a crime or suspected crime which may involve a vehicle, please CALL THE POLICE and file a police report and email VicePresident@Heathlake.org or call the State Patrol hotline to report, so we can assist in providing camera evidence for investigations.

ALARMS: Homeowners with a home security system can KEEP Precinct 5 as their alarm response. The Constables will still respond to true emergencies, our community is still a part of the Precinct 5 coverage area, general patrol services. For more info on the Constable’s response time please see the data below from Precinct 5. Alarm calls are considered priority 2 and have averaged under 4 minutes according to this report. You may also list State Patrol or HPD as a contact for alarms, however, response time will likely be slower. There is no additional fee to homeowners to list State Patrol as a contact and should State Patrol respond to an alarm call there is currently no out of pocket fee for homeowners (the call does cost the HOA an hourly rate). Should you choose to change your alarm response, please wait to change until the end of the month, as our new contract term with State Patrol is effective June 1. 

More info below graphic…

If you have an alarm system you can obtain a permit from the city of Houston Burglar Alarm Administration here. 

With the upcoming change, the CEO of State Patrol, Mr. Sirwan H. Muhammad sent our community the following letter:

5/10/2022 Re: New Courtesy Patrol Company for Heathlake Community Association

Dear Residents of Heathlake Community Association,

In the next few weeks, State Patrol Services will be providing courtesy patrol services to
the community of Heathlake Community Association. We will be patrolling the property 20
hours a week. Therefore, we would like to partner with the community to fight crime together.
Please be on the lookout for any suspicious vehicles, suspicious people, and suspicious activity.
We ask that you be always aware of your surroundings and never open your door to strangers.
Never leave valuables in plain sight in your car; hide them in the trunk or glove compartment. If
you need a safety escort, vacation watch, or need to report a suspicious event, we urge you to
call our patrol hotline at 346-441-1989. Please take note of important numbers below:

Emergency- 911
Houston Police non-emergency-713-884-3131
Courtesy Patrol Hotline- 346-441-1989

We look forward to working with you!
Sincerely,
Sirwan H Muhammed
CEO

Neighbors, 

The results of the security survey are below.  You have confirmed we should continue to investigate other options that provide the deterrence and flexibility we need, while being both verifiable and cost effective.  As you know, the status quo was the Constable contract alone, and with the reimbursement we received from River Forest, we now have an additional $12K in our budget.  We very much appreciate your participation, and were excited to see so many of you respond.  Please make a placeholder in your calendar for our next community meeting on April 20th, 7:00 PM, at the clubhouse to hear the Board’s security plan going forward and provide a decision briefing on the various options, with our formal announcement to follow.  One immediate aspect in which there was broad community support and we believe we receive the most value is the the added deterrence and verifiability that is achieved through video surveillance, specifically Flock cameras.  Consequently, in the coming weeks, the Board approved for these to be installed at the three entrances of our community, along with signage to emphasize to those who enter our neighborhood that they are being watched.  An additional post with more detail about these cameras is forthcoming.

Survey Results Summary:

120+ votes per survey

We (Heathlake) are in favor of searching for better and more cost effective security.

We are concerned there are nearly no night patrols.

We do not want to raise dues to have both the Constable and an additional crime deterrent.

We support security cameras.

We would support private patrols.

As part of our community service research (post dated November 3), we shared Heathlake was not receiving the number of patrols as expected, and was paying more per home than the average home participating in our co-op. In light of this, further investigation has been done, and we discovered the vast majority of our patrols are done during the day when crime is low. We found this significant since we cannot request patrols at specific times, (we attempted this when repeat disturbances were occurring on Friday and Saturday nights). The reasoning received was patrols are random and meant to keep criminals off guard, and there are not as many deputies on duty in at night in our co-op. The following is a chart displaying patrol activity over the past 245 days for Heathlake (March – October), total of 171 patrols.