Pollard gets the nod for District J
Incumbent made public safety the priority in his first term, curtailing sex trafficking on Bissonnet Track
Every city council member is defending their record on crime but only Edward Pollard represents a district with an international reputation as a hub for sex trafficking and gang violence. To win reelection, he’s got to convince his constituents he’s done everything in his power to make the district safer.
District J — which stretches from just southwest of the Galleria through Gulfton, Sharpstown and Braeburn — encompasses a remarkably diverse mosaic of communities where more than 80 languages are spoken and immigrants have arrived from every continent in pursuit of the American dream. It is also, unfortunately, a region rife with crime. The district is home to three of Houston’s top 10 most dangerous ZIP codes, according to the FBI. Gang activity is common. One area, the Bissonnet Track, had been such a notorious hub for sex trafficking that it earned an international reputation.
Given these challenges, Pollard, 36, has wisely made public safety the primary focus of his first term. He’s brought license plate readers — light pole cameras that provide 24/7 monitoring to deter and solve crimes such as burglary and theft — to his district. He’s secured grant funding for after-school programs. He tapped his discretionary funds to pay overtime hours for a community policing unit in his district that responds to lowerlevel crimes — such as noise complaints, aggressive panhandlers or illegally parked cars — using an online portal that details offenses reported by residents and whether officers solved the problem.
“Those type of offenses are very important to the people who live in the neighborhood, so we want them to have the same attention,” Pollard told the editorial board.
Pollard made clear that the larger goal is to transform
District J — one of the city’s poorest districts — into an area that can eventually cultivate even more economic opportunities for residents and services to meet people’s needs. While progress has been slow, we commend Pollard’s proactive approach to helping the city combat crime and make his district more livable. He deserves another term to see his vision through.
The efforts to curb sex trafficking on the Bissonnet Track are an example of Pollard’s tireless advocacy.
In August 2021, Pollard and Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, a Republican whose precinct at the time overlapped with District J, spearheaded a roundtable with community leaders and various law enforcement agencies to craft a strategy for curbing prostitution on the thoroughfare.
The plan started with bright orange traffic signs in the district warning motorists and pedestrians that picking up a sex worker is a felony offense. According to Pollard, it worked for a time, but when the signs came down, the trafficking returned. So he engaged local businesses, encouraging them to install outward-facing cameras. When not all of the businesses complied, Pollard worked with the Houston Police Department to block off several streets on the Bissonnet Track after 10 p.m., paying for some of the overtime costs out of his discretionary budget. The early results are encouraging — residents have noticed a stark difference in the amount of prostitution over the past few months.
Pollard’s opponent, Ivan Sanchez, 39, is a real estate lender and investor with a compelling personal story. His family fled Colombia when he was 6 and he said his father, a geophysicist, was kidnapped four times. His family arrived in Houston with nothing, and his mom worked her way through law school. Sanchez worked several jobs to pay for his own education at University of Houston-Downtown, and eventually landed in U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s office as an aide before transitioning to the private sector.
Sanchez, who lives in Sharpstown, believes that Pollard’s crime-fighting strategies are “too little, too late,” and that he has not done enough to beautify the district to make it more attractive for businesses that want to relocate. If elected, one of Sanchez’s goals is to revive PlazAmericas, formerly known as the Sharpstown Mall, which has become more associated with violence than family outings. A deputy constable was killed during a shooting at the mall last year.
Sanchez told the editorial board he would encourage police officers to prioritize violent crime rather than quality-of-life offenses.
“We should care about quality of life things, but there are so many actual murders, shootings, violent crimes that we need to go over,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez’s passion for his community is commendable, and his tenacity would be an asset on City Council. We believe Pollard’s ability to balance public safety concerns while still connecting residents to other services — from job fairs to partnering with the Houston Land Bank to reclaim vacant and blighted properties — makes him worthy of a second term.
We urge voters to choose Pollard.