From: Sherry Hibbert
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 6:25 PM
Subject: August 11, 2025 and August 20, 2025 articles on Crime in Meyerland

Attachment: Interactive Crime Map

Hello, Ms. Scott and Ms. Matos. I am a native Houstonian and a long-time subscriber to The Houston Chronicle. I am also the current president of Meyerland Community Improvement Association – the property owners association for the subdivision of Meyerland. 

I am writing to you today regarding Matt deGrood’s  article dated August 11, 2025 (“Crime is Surging in Houston’s Meyerland neighborhood. Here’s why.”) and its August 20, 2025 reprint (“Meyerland bucks citywide crime dip”).

After reading the August 11, 2025 article, I reached out to Mr. deGrood via email and subsequently discussed my concerns and those of other Meyerland Board members and residents during a telephone conversation with him on Friday, August 15. 

Although the article was supposed to be a report on crime in the Greater Meyerland Super Neighborhood #31, Mr. deGrood failed to ever identify the super neighborhood by its full name or define the area and the multiple subdivisions it actually encompasses. https://greatermeyerland.com/superneighborhood  Instead, on at least a dozen occasions, he merely referred to the area as “Meyerland”.  

As I told Mr. deGrood, the crime described in the article is not occurring in the subdivision of Meyerland. Neither the apartment complex known as “Life at Jackson Square” nor those located near it where the crime is cited as occurring are in the Meyerland subdivision. The Braeswood Square shopping center, also cited as an area of crime, is also located outside of the Meyerland subdivision. 

Neither of the two individuals interviewed and quoted in the article are Meyerland residents although the article suggests that they are. Neither is authorized to speak on behalf of the Meyerland subdivision. They, instead, represent the Greater Meyerland Super Neighborhood.

As I mentioned to Mr. deGrood, the Meyerland Community Improvement Association contracts with Harris County to provide law enforcement services performed by Precinct 5 Constables 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Monthly Precinct 5 reports for our subdivision are accessible on the Traffic and Security Information page of the Meyerland website. https://meyerland.net/traffic-security-information/ After reviewing the reports, I believe you’ll agree that the Meyerland subdivision does not have a problem with crime and is most certainly not experiencing a crime surge.

Other Meyerland residents and I also found that the crime information found by entering an address on the interactive map included in the online article is inaccurate.  One Meyerland resident, who has lived at the same address and has never known of a crime to have occurred nearby during that time, found that 12 offenses were noted when he entered his address.

Last week, when I first entered my address on the interactive map, 2 offenses were noted as having occurred in my area since 2019. Today, 4 offenses were noted during that same time period. When I entered my neighbor’s address on the east side of my home, 1 offense was noted. Today, when I entered my neighbors’ addresses across the street and next door on the west side of my home, 5 offenses were noted at each location. The second time I entered my next-door neighbor’s address on the west side, 10 offenses were noted. I’ve owned this property for 25 years and have heard of only a few very minor crimes during that entire time.

As I told Mr. deGrood when we spoke on August 15, his article is extremely misleading and presents an unfair portrayal of the Meyerland subdivision. I asked him to print a correction – to clarify that the Greater Meyerland Super Neighborhood and the subdivision of Meyerland are not the same. He agreed to speak to his supervisors and contact me again this week. I have heard nothing from him since then. Instead, to my shock and to the shock of other Meyerland Board members and residents, an unedited reprint of the article was published on the front page of today’s paper.  This was done in flagrant disregard of the facts. 

Residents of Houston deserve a newspaper they can trust to give them a full and factual story. The Houston Chronicle failed to do that on August 11 and then, egregiously, printed the same erroneous article on the front page today.   

Regards,

Sherry Hibbert