HOUSTON — Once a growing criminal trend, catalytic converter theft has recently seen a dramatic decline according to the Houston Police Department.
In a Houston City Council public safety committee meeting Tuesday, HPD Commander Dana Hitzman presented data that highlighted the extent of the issue and the apparent drop in catalytic converter thefts across the city.
“You can see that the issue was city-wide,” Hitzman said. “Combine 2021, 2022 and 2023, the City of Houston had over 19,000 catalytic converter thefts.”
A graph shown to council members, which didn’t include specific numbers, indicated catalytic converter thefts over the past three years dropped from hundreds of incidents every month to almost none in the first few months of 2024.
Hitzman told council members there were different factors behind the decline in catalytic converter theft, including the falling price of metal.
She also credited various city ordinances and state laws that helped police take on the problem, including Senate Bill 244, also known as the Deputy Darren Almendarez Act.
Almendarez, a Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputy, was shot and killed in 2022 by thieves attempting to steal his catalytic converter.
Hitzman explained that SB 244 gave HPD the “tools” to address the problem by making catalytic converter theft a felony.
“The law provided improvements to criminal mischief and theft charges related to catalytic converter thefts, it made them state jail felonies,” she said.
She explained SB 244 added a new offense for catalytic converter theft called ‘unauthorized possession of a catalytic converter and allowed for enhanced charges on certain suspects. SB 244 also created a “funding mechanism” for law enforcement tasked with taking on catalytic converter crimes through Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority grants.
On Tuesday, Almendarez's widow Flor Zarzoza-Almendarez spoke to KHOU 11 News about the apparent decline in catalytic converter thefts.
“I’m very, very glad to see it,” she said. “Hopefully it stays like that, the same or even better, to where this nonsense stops.”
While Zarzoza-Almendarez helped enact SB 244 after her husband's death, she expressed her belief there is still more work to be done to target the issue.
“Sad to say that it took his life, but he [Almendarez] would want me to keep going to make a change, to keep his legacy alive,” she said. “We need this law at the national level. It could really help people.”