Gulfton Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project, Houston, TX

CHAPTER 2: KNOCK AND TALK DATA 5
Of 193 knock and talk police visit records from the 2004-2005 school year, 92% of
students served were Hispanic/Latino, 5% were black and less than 3% were white or other.
102 (53%) were male. Both 8 th and 9 th graders received police visitors; 54% were in 9 th grade
and the majority were 15 years old (33%), but ages ranged from 11 to 19.
Only four students had received in-school suspensions, but 25 had at least one out-ofschool
suspension. None of the students had been expelled, but five were on probation at the
time of the visit. Seven percent had previous involvement with the criminal justice system (11
students). Of those, the offenses included assault, criminal mischief and trespassing, fighting,
marijuana possession, and runaway.
Police officers typically visited the homes only once (74%), and 15% of the time, the
home visit was not accomplished because no one was at the home. In 29% (48) of the cases, the
student no longer lived at the residence that the officer visited. Although the goal of the visit
was to meet with both the parent and the student, this occurred only 69% of the time. In 29
instances (18%) the officer only met with the parent, and in 22 (13%) instances, the officer only
spoke with the student.
A warning notice was issued in 98% of the visits, and in only 2% of the visits were
tickets issued. In addition, 40% were referred to academic tutoring, 3% to transportation help,
1% to mental health counseling, less than 1% to substance abuse counseling, health services,
mentoring, or job training/employment placement (for parents only). An additional 5% were
5 Percentages reported are based on different numbers depending on the information available. Police records of knock and talk
visits have varying levels of completeness so not all numbers are based on the full sample.
Evaluation of the Gulfton Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project 6